How oil palm fruit is grown and harvested

One hectare of oil palm averages 20 tonnes of fruit a year, and the palm is harvested all year round.

stations: 3
things downstream: 15

The short version

Oil palms are single-stemmed palms that grow up to 20 meters tall and carry fruit in large bunches. A fruit takes 5 to 6 months to ripen after pollination, and the harvest runs year-round. Each hectare averages 20 tonnes of fruit, which yields 4,000 kg of palm oil and 750 kg of seed kernels.

Plant hybrid palms

All modern commercial planting material is tenera palm or hybrids made by crossing thick-shelled dura with shell-less pisifera. The resulting palm bears thin-shelled fruit with more oil in the flesh.
Let insects pollinate

The palm is pollinated almost entirely by insects, not wind. An African insect, Elaeidobius kamerunicus, was deliberately introduced to southeast Asia in 1981 with dramatic results.
Cut the ripe bunches

Fruit takes 5 to 6 months to mature after pollination, reddish and about the size of a large plum. Bunches are cut down all year, and the oil-rich flesh around a hard-shelled kernel gives two oils, palm oil and palm kernel oil.

End of the lineOil palm fruit Next it goes into palm oil.

Worth repeating

A bunch yields 17 to 27% palm oil by weight and 4 to 10% palm kernels.
Palm oil is reddish because of its high beta-carotene content.
Palm oil and kernel meal from the same hectare also supply livestock feed, as the kernel meal is processed for animal use.