African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis

Oil palm (or Elaesis guineensis) originated from the coastal swamplands and freshwater riverines of Central and West Africa.

The Oil Palm was first introduced into the then Malaya in 1870 when it was the regarded as an ornamental plant. It was almost fifty years later that its commercial viability as an estate crop was recognized and the first commercial oil palm plantation was started at Tennamaran Estate, Batang Berjuntai in Selangor.

In the sixties, with the increasing demand for edible oils in the world market, coupled with the mounting threat of synthetic rubber, Malaysia embarked on a vast planned agricultural diversification programme. New lands were opened up and old rubber lands were replanted with oil palm. The area under oil palm cultivation was 54, 000 hectares in 1960. Today, thirty years later, the area under cultivation has reached 2,000,000 hectares.

Sixty years after the first commercial planting on an estate basis, Malaysia has become the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil. This position is still being maintained today. The production has dramatically increased from 92,000 tonnes in 1960 to an estimated 6,000,000 tonnes for the year 1989.

African Oil Palm - Elaeis guineensis

Originally from West Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has spread throughout the tropics countries.

Originally from West Africa, the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) has spread throughout the 16 or more tropics countries. However, the major centre of production Malaysia and Indonesia together accounting for around 83 % of world palm oil production in 2001. Malaysia is presently the world’s leading exporter of palm oil having a 60 % market share and palm oil is second only to soybean as the major source of vegetable oil.

Oil palm production in Malaysia occupies around 3.7 million hectares of which over two million are in Peninsular Malaysia and the rest in Sabah and Sarawak. Production is divided between large estates managed by publicly listed companies, smaller independent estates, independent smallholders and government smallholder settler schemes.

With good quality planting materials and agronomic practices, oil palm begins producing the oil-bearing fruit bunches as early as two and a half years after planting. While the lifespan of oil palm is at least 120 years, the crop is generally grown for 25-30 years before being replanted. This is mainly because old palm becomes too tall to harvest economically.