Issue No 10, July 1998.

NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the Advice on Publications Available.

21.4 Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis)

The obvious question that has to be asked about oil palm is, how would such a crop fit into the Australian scene and what commercial potential would it have?

The centre of origin of oil palm is the wetter parts of West Africa. It is mostly grown within 10 degrees, north or south, of the Equator. It does grow commercially in latitudes of 17 degrees from the Equator, but yields are reduced at such sites. Its temperature requirement is roughly 22-32ºC and its rainfall demand is usually in excess of 2000mm, with a fairly even distribution required throughout the year. These are the ideal conditions on a suitable soil. For satisfactory productivity, five hours of sunlight per day is considered the minimal requirement.

The crop is basically low altitude (< 400m), wet tropical, but it is a hardy crop and has performed very well in areas with a marked dry season and on a very wide variety of soils.

Oil palm, per hectare, is the highest yielding vegetable oil crop in the world. Producing a number of types of saturated and unsaturated oils, it yields from the mesocarp of the fruitlet, as well as from the kernel. Uses for palm oil are varied and they include the manufacture of cooking oil, margarine, soap and cosmetics as well as various industrial uses.

Oil palm has been subjected to considerable research and extensive breeding programs have been undertaken. The palm itself is long lived, but height usually imposes a limitation on harvesting ability. Planted from nurseries at 9-15 months of age, the palms will, with good management, be in production in 2 to 2.5 years after field planting.

Planting densities vary with soil type and locality potential, but 120-150 palms per hectare are common establishments rates. Yield potential is 5t/ha in year 1 of harvest, and by year 4 should be approaching 20t/ha of fresh fruit bunches (FFB). In a mature plantation of 8 to 20 years of age, good management should produce up to 30t/ha of FFB. Average bunch weights will usually increase from 4kgs to over 25kgs, with exceptional bunches weighing up to 75kgs.

The extraction rate of palm oil varies with fruit bunch size, but expectations are 20-23 %, with individual fruitlets having up to 70% mesocarp oil content. The level of kernel recovery is usually in the vicinity of 3-4 %. (A bunch is composed of several hundred fruitlets and these first have to be separated from the non-oil-bearing part of the bunch during processing.)

As with any crop, there are definite stages at which harvesting is optimal. Raw or (crude) palm oil is an orange/red semi-solid at 25ºC. It is organic and care is required in maintaining its quality. High levels of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) lead to a quality decline and reduced monetary returns to the producer.

Oil palm is one of the very few perennial crops that is harvested all year around, but there may be slight peaks and troughs in annual production. The palm produces a flower in the axil of each frond, either male or female. Pollination to harvest lasts approximately five months and the ratio of male to female flowers produced is subject to a considerable number of variables, such as the influences of plant breeding, nutrition, moisture availability and the age of the palm.

Adequate pollination in many parts of the world was previously achieved by applying collected pollen by hand, but most plantations now utilise an
introduced weevil, (Elaedobius kamerunicus) which is specific to oil palm, to do the pollination .

While in parts of Africa, oil palms are grown in village environs and form a very important part of the human diet, the crop has in the last 50 years developed as one of the largest plantation crops on the planet, with plantings often exceeding 20,000ha in size.

Millions of tomes of raw and processed palm oil are traded on world markets, with many countries in the western world being large importers of plantation products. Some of the main competitors with palm oil are soybean oil and tallow.

It has traditionally been considered a very labour intensive crop and attempts to mechanise many of the daily management tasks have met with limited success, especially in countries where there are low wages and a surplus of labour.

The positioning of such a crop in Australia has quite a few limitations.

Firstly, there is a limited area that meets the climatic requirements of the crop. The possibility of it being grown under irrigation has not been widely tried as large tracts of higher rainfall land have usually been available. Oil palm would be expected to perform very well, but at what cost compared to alternative crops ?

Secondly, in Australia oil palm would have to compete for land with less labour intensive crops such as sugar cane or other arable crops.

Thirdly, the normal consideration of growing large plantations to justify processing facilities would be unnecessary, if high value products fitting a niche market could be established.

So how might it fit into the scene in Australia ?

There is probably enough Asian and African expatriates in Australia for the marketing of both raw palm oil, that is, the unbleached oil, as well as palm wine. (Palm wine is produced by tapping the immature male inflorescence). The market for each of these has probably never been evaluated.

If suitable land was found, it is estimated that smaller scale processing equipment would already be available from countries in West Africa and while it is not the intention to go into the 'milling' techniques, much of the equipment is similar to food processing machinery available commercially in Australia.

As with any tree crop, the time span for recovery of development costs is not short. It would be expected that in Australia some form of inter-cropping would have to be undertaken to defray such costs. In large scale plantations the interrows are usually planted to a legume cover crop, but cattle grazing or the growing of papaya or banana would be an option.

Modification of several of the normal plantation practices would have to occur since low cost labour is not available in Australia. It is conceivable that mechanisation of weeding could be done, but pruning and harvesting still defy the best attempts at mechanisation.

The potential for pest and disease problems in Australia is fairly unknown. There were experimental or observation plantings of oil palms in North Queensland many years ago and these sites could be worth finding to assess their persistence. Planting seed from several international breeding centres would be available at relatively low cost, but quarantine restrictions could be changing as at least one Pacific Region breeding program is looking to shift part of its valued lines into North Queensland.

Importation of both raw palm oil and palm wine into Australia could pose a real threat to the success of any attempt to develop a small local oil palm industry.

Large scale plantings of oil palm in Australia will not be viable with current production costs in South East Asia.

An excellent reference book is The Oil Palm by CWS Hartley, published by Longmans in their Tropical Agricultural Series.

Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email: r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au

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originally created by: GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF