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Palm Oil Business: What Other Products Can You Get from a Palm Tree?

Yes, yes, we all love our native soup that comes from the Oil Palm Tree, Banga Soup. That rich, smooth texture that goes so well with fresh fish, goat meat, and fufu... a taste that only a perfect mix of palm oil and palm kernel oil can give.

But have you ever taken the time to ask: What else can we get from an Oil Palm Tree?

I notice that when I ask people here in Nigeria what other products they can get from a palm tree aside from Palm Oil and Palm Kernel oil, their usual answer is "the shell or chaff," if they have a market for it. Others will say "nothing else".

The truth is, there is much more you can get from a palm tree—even from the Palm Oil and Palm Kernel oil you already have.

A Breakdown of Palm Tree Products

Crude Palm Oil (CPO)

This is an oil ranging from blood-red to reddish-yellow in color, gotten from the pressed pulp of a palm oil fruit bunch. Here in Nigeria, it's usually used for cooking soups and stews, while also holding color well in products like lipsticks.

Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO)

A light yellow oil that comes from crushed and pressed Palm Kernels. The color comes about because of the Lauric acid it contains. It has a wide range of uses when refined, from keeping chocolate solid at room temperature to frying pastries.

Refined Palm Oil (RPO)

An oil that comes from the process of Refining, Bleaching, and Deodorizing Crude Palm Oil (CPO). Due to its refinement and low fatty acid of 0.5%, it can be used as a cooking oil.

Refined Palm Kernel Oil (RPKO)

This Refined Palm Kernel Oil comes about by processing, refining, bleaching, and deodorizing Crude Palm Kernel Oil. It is also used for cooking oil.

Palm Olein (PKOO)

Palm Kernel Olein is a fully Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized (RBD) vegetable oil. Because of its high melting point and steep melting profile, you will often see it used for making ice cream.

Palm Stearin

Palm Stearin is a solid, whitish crystalline substance obtained from the fractionation of Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized Palm Oil. It is mainly used by the food industry, particularly for mixing flour for making pastries like biscuits, dough for pizza, or snacks.

Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD)

PFAD is a high free fatty acid that is mainly used by the cosmetics and soap industries. It is obtained as a by-product of the CPO refining process.

Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB)

The Empty Fruit Bunches come about after the Palm Oil Fruits have been separated from the bunch. After separation, they are usually wet. When dried, they can be used as a source of fuel or returned to the plantation as decaying fertilizer for the palm trees.

Palm Fibres and Palm Kernel Shells

Palm Fibres are the chaffs and debris that come from shelling palm kernels. They are a good source of fertilizer used by melon and pineapple plantations. Palm Kernel Shells, also gotten from cracking palm kernels, are a good source of fuel for blacksmiths. It can also be turned into charcoal or used in making a light cement substitute called Pozzolana.

Conclusion

Now you can see that the Palm Tree has a lot of other uses! Although there are still questions like:

  • How do you extract the above at a cost-efficient and effective value?
  • Who will you sell them to?

If you would like to see answers to the above, then do stay tuned, as we will be breaking down each of these products in subsequent posts. We will look at how you can produce each of them by yourself.

If you know of any other palm products that we missed, please drop us a comment on them, and we will add them to our list!

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