What is actually involved in bring it to supermarkets and homes?
It can be purchased in bottles and is popular in countries that have
embraced it as a cooking oil. Some of us might not be aware that it can
also be present in many of the products that we enjoy eating. Even many
of the popular scented soap brands use Palm Oil as a major ingredient in
the manufacturing process. Palm is plentiful and a major source of
vegetable and cooking oil. If you happen to live in countries like
Malaysia and Indonesia, you cannot help but notice that certain parts of
the countryside are populated with millions of palm trees. Palm Oil has
become a major commodity on the world market and it is a growing
industry and can even be used to produce biofuel.
First of all the
Palm Trees have to be picked. It is actually the seeds that contain the
oil. These seeds are then crushed in a Mill and separated by process
systems to produce something called CPO (crude palm oil).
Once the
mill is satisfied with the quality of the oil it can be transported to
refineries. If it is being transported by land it will most likely be
kept in large containers on trucks. These trucks will deliver the
product to refineries who will process it even further into purer oil.
When palm oil is being delivered to refineries it is either sampled
manually or goes through electronic "palm oil quality monitors"
CPO
Refineries are always watching the price of the commodity which is also
traded on the stock market so timing can be important.
Finally,
these refined products are sold to agents and distributors in smaller
quantities who then use the palm oil as a base product or a component of
goods that will be found on supermarket shelves and used in homes.
Palm
competes with other types of oil such as Canola and Sunflower Oil. The
distribution of palm oil and palm oil related products will depend
mostly on the preferences of end manufacturers of products which also
can be influenced by consumer preferences. Palm for cooking is highly
respected in countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia where it is
commonly found in restaurant food. There are many benefits to using
Palm Oil in these locations but one of the major benefits is that it
will be competitively priced compared to other types of vegetable oil
which might be costlier to import.
