So..... What is Palm Oil??

Fruit of Elaeis guineensis                                  Source 

Palm oil is derived from the fruit of the Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis), a native West African tree. Despite its origin, Elaeis guineensis plantations can be found in a variety of global locations and covers over 13 million ha worldwide. The expansion of the palm oil industry has lead to plantations primarily being located in Southeast Asia, where they have directly or indirectly replaced tropical rainforest. 


Indonesia and Malaysia have become the dominated producers and exports of palm oil, largely because  oil palm thrive under the tropical climate, characterised by all-year round temperatures ranging from 25 to 33 degrees and an average rainfall of 2000mm. Although countries located within 10 degrees latitude of the equator are suitable for palm oil cultivation, they tend to experience several months of drought that severely impacts on crop yield.

Source: Malaysian Palm Oil Board

The entire fruit of the Elaeis guineensis is of commercial use, with palm oil being extracted from its pulp and palm kernel oil from its seed. Consequently providing a higher yield of oil per hectare than most other crops.

In addition to being a high yield crop, palm oil is very versatile, leading to wide use in a large variety of products. Its low acid content facilitates use within food products such as margarine and other edible fats, biscuits and pastry, ice cream and chocolate. In turn, making it the most widely traded edible oil, accounting for more than half of foreign trade in edible oils. In regard to manufactured goods, palm oil regularly appears as an ingredient in many soaps, detergents and cosmetics! So beware you are likely to be supporting the palm oil industry, completely unwillingly!!

As much of Southeast Asia continues to develop, demand from countries such as China and India are increasing, as well as global demand for palm oil as a biofuel, both these factors driving a rapid expansion in the palm oil industry. A study by Colchester et al. (2006), into the implications of palm oil for local communities predicts this expansion could be as much as 4% a year with demand for palm oil set to double by 2020.

With its wide use and increasing demand banning palm oil cultivation on the premise of negative impacts on social, economic and environmental factors, is blindly ridiculous! However there is a desperate need for a shift towards sustainable plantations to secure a higher level of socio-economic development within the host country and reduce the negative impacts palm oil is having on climate change.

Now we have established its origin, what it is used for, as well as recognising that there is a need for sustainable development within the industry. However what hasn’t been addressed (and will be addressed in the next post!!!) is the actual impacts that the industry generates.