Palm Oil, Its Fractions, and Components

Abstract

Palm, soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower oils comprise 70% of the world’s edible vegetable oil supply. Among these four oils, palm oil has a very high annual growth rate, primarily because it has the highest productivity at 5 tons oil/hectare compared with 0.30 for soybean oil, 0.37 for rapeseed oil, and 0.42 for sunflower oil (1). Currently, Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil. In 2002, Malaysia produced 11.9 million metric tons (MMT) of crude palm oil and 1.5 MMT of crude palm kernel oil (PKO) (2). The commitment of the government in ensuring a steady supply of the oils as well as the added advantage of tocotrienols and carotenes in the oils led to the exportation of 10.6 and 0.7 MMT of processed palm oil and palm kernel oil, respectively (Table 30.1). Malaysia now produces more palm oil than all of the other countries in the world combined; the oil is consumed in >150 countries.