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PALM OIL Lauren Gessner

What is it? •  Perennial tropical trees

•  African oil palm Elaeis guineesnsis •  South and Central American oil palm Elaeis oleifera

•  Not branched with long single stem •  Large spherical red fruits in bunches (200 fruits per bunch) •  Edible vegetable oil from the mesocarp of fruit of oil palms •  One of few highly saturated vegetable fats and semi-solid at

room temp. •  Common cooking ingredient in tropical belt of Africa, Southeast

Asia, Brazil, processed food ingredient, and substitute for butter, binding agent in cosmetics, can be used to produce biodiesel

•  Crude vs. refined

History/Origin • Human use dates back as far as 5,000 years •  From West Africa brought to South East Asia beginning of

20th century •  Late 1800s, archaeologists found substance that was a

palm oil tomb at Abydos dating to 3,000 BCE • Believed the Arab traders brought palm oil to Egypt • During Industrial Revolution, use as lubricant for

machinery by British traders •  Formed basis of soap products (Unilever, Palmolive) •  50% of items you see in grocery store contain palm oil

Growing conditions

Market/sales •  Top palm oil producing nations: Indonesia and Malaysia,

account for 85% of global palm oil production •  Indonesia: 28.4 million tons •  Malaysia: 19.2 million tons

• High demand for commercial cooking •  50 million tons produced annually •  25-30 year economic lifespan: become too tall to be

managed efficiently and cut down • Over 600,000 tons exported from South-East Asia

annually • Cardiovascular disease: decline? • Orgagic Red Palm oil: $8.45 for 15 fl oz

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Pests, weeds, and control •  Pestalotiopsis leaf spot-tree removed and destroyed; planted

with adequate spacing for air to circulate between trees; remove weeds; fungicides

•  Ganoderma butt rot-monitored and removed •  Bacterial bud rot-some varieties have resistance •  Oil palm wilt-quarantine between countries •  Rhinoceros beetle-chop and burn to kill larvae •  Mealybugs (Pineapple mealybug)-can be controlled by

natural enemies (lady beetles) and chemicals •  Axonopus compressus •  Eleusine indica •  Planted with leguminous cover crop: provides nitrogen and

suppress weeds

Transportation •  Travel long distances before consumed •  From plantations to mills in producing countries •  Then refineries in Europe • Manufacturers/consumers in India, China, Europe,

America and rest of the world •  Internationally traded agricultural commodities,

transported by various modes: trucks, ships, trains, and airplanes (liquid cargo: temp controlled) •  Add to cost and the negative impacts on the environment •  Efficient transportation as it deteriorates in quality after crop has

been harvested and milled

Processing • Hard fruit, must be cooked for hour • Miniature capsules of oil that break • Pressed to red palm oil • Conversion of crude palm oil to refined oil:

•  Removal of products of hydrolysis and oxidation, color and flavor

Economic factors •  Factors affecting prices of palm oil:

•  Supply and demand of palm oil •  Price of other oils •  Weather patterns •  Importing policies/taxes

• Demand grown: plantations expanded to meet global demand

Production costs • RSPO Certification

•  $2.59-$9.26/ha •  Ongoing certification maintenance costs= 20-33% of initial

certification costs •  Certification lasts 5 years with annual surveillance audits •  Other actions vary $3.74-$38.32/ha •  Harvest 300 bundles a day: earns a salary of 180 Honduras

lempiras~about $9.40 USD

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Sustainable? • Use has attracted environmental concern • High oil yield of trees encourages cultivation • Clearing of forests in Indonesia to make room for oil-palm

monoculture: 300 football fields each hour cleared • Deforestation • Acreage losses of natural habitat of orangutan: 90% of

habitat destroyed in last 20 years

Sustainable? cont. • Human rights issues/child labor •  Loss of indigenous land • Malaysian Government pledged to limit expansion of palm

oil plantations: keep minimum of half the nation’s land as forest cover

Organic/Conventional • Conventionally grown, but also organically certified • Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) •  International Sustainability and Carbon Certification

(ISCC)

Justin’s • Palm oil prevents oils separating from nut butters • Will be certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm

Oil (RSPO) • How complicated palm oil sourcing has become • Market for sustainable palm oil threatened by certifications

and difficulties • Balancing sustainability and profitability

Works Cited •  www.thefoodjourney.com •  http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2011/08/02/justins-nut-butter-search-

sustainable-palm-oil •  https://www.plantvillage.com/en/topics/oil-palm/infos/

diseases_and_pests_description_uses_propagation •  http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/transport-biofuels/transport/ •  http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4355e/y4355e04.htm •  http://www.saynotopalmoil.com/Whats_the_issue.php •  http://www.americanpalmoil.com/publications/Guideline%20for

%20Handling%20and%20Storage%20of%20Palm%20Oil%20Product.pdf

•  http://www.sustainablepalmoil.org/standards-certfication/certification-schemes/

•  http://www.rspo.org/file/3_StudyontheRestorationCostandReturnsfromOilPalmIndustry_PreparedbyERE.pdf

Questions?