Palm oil is traditionally, and still industrially, produced by milling the fruits of oil palm. Besides milling, palm oil is produced by cold-pressing the fruit of the oil palm since the 1990s. This type of artisanal palm oil is usually not further refined, so they keep the natural red color.
Which country produces the most palm oil in the world?
Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil, surpassing Malaysia in 2006, producing more than 20.9 million metric tons (23.0 million short tons), a number that has since risen to over 34.5 million metric tons (38.0 million short tons) (2016 output). Indonesia expects to double production by the end of 2030.
How much oil does a palm oil farm produce per hectare?
In 2016, it was found that palm oil farms produce around 4.17 metric tons of oil per hectare. By contrast other oils, such as sunflower, soybean, or peanut only produce 0.56, 0.39, and 0.16 metric tons respectively per hectare.
Where did palm oil come from?
Humans used oil palms as far back as 5,000 years. In the late 1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3,000 BCE. Palm oil from Elaeis guineensis has long been recognized in West and Central African countries, used widely as a cooking oil.