Sources of Vegetable Oil | World | Economic Geography

The following points highlight the seven important sources of vegetable oil. The sources are: 1. Oil Palm 2. Coconuts 3. Groundnuts 4. Soya Beans 5. Olives 6. Cottonseed 7. Linseed Oil.

Source # 1. Oil Palm:

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a tropical palm tree which originated in West Africa. It requires heavy, well-distributed rainfall of about 2,030 mm (80 inch­es) constant high temperatures, and plenty of sunlight. Soil factors are not particularly important and the tree will tolerate a wide variety of soils.

The tree may grow to a height of about 15 metres (50 ft), in its wild state but cultivated varieties are bred to reach only 7.5 metres (25 ft) as this facilitates harvesting. The fruit consists of a large clump of small oval fruits which are red to black in colour. These individual fruits consist of a thick, pulpy pericarp, surrounding a hard kernel.

The clumps of fruits grow at the base of the frond-like leaves of the palm and are harvested with the aid of a strong, curved knife. High-yielding trees on efficiently-run estates may yield as much as 90 kg (200 lb) of fruit annually or the equivalent of about 3,920 kg of oil per hectare (3,500 lb per acre). The trees are planted, on estates, about 9 metres (30 ft) apart and take three years to mature. After that they continue to produce fruits for many years.

Oil palm estates require careful management. After the land has been cleared the young palms are trans­planted from the nurseries where they have been rear­ed, and cover crops are usually planted between the trees. Much care is needed to weed the estates regu­larly, and an area immediately around the roots of the plant is usually kept clear of vegetation.

The palms must also be regularly inspected for insect pests, to which they are particularly liable, and sprayed as a preventive measure. Estates must be laid out carefully with easy access from all parts to estate roads which lead to the central processing factory, as once the fruit is collected no time must be lost before the oil is ex­tracted. The quality of the oil deteriorates markedly if it is not processed the same day. Fruits are harvested every 5 to 10 days.

Oil is derived both from the pericarp and from the kernel, though different types of palm produce slightly different fruits. The type grown in West Africa has a large kernel and a relatively thin pericarp, so that the kernel is more important as a source of oil.

In South- East Asia, however, though the palms are derived from the same dura type, selective breeding has produced a variety which has a thick fleshy pericarp and a small kernel. Palm oil is thus more important than kernel oil in such countries as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Oil Palm Processing:

The harvested fruits are collected by lorries which take them to the factory. Here they are tipped into tube-like cages or trucks which run on rails. The trucks have holes in the sides and when they enter the ster­ilizer the fruits are cooked in hot steam which enters through the holes.

After cooking the cages are with­ drawn from the sterilizers and the fruits are taken by a conveyor belt to the stripper where the individual fruits are shaken loose from the stalks and other waste material. The fruits are then cooked again in digesters before depulping, which separates the pulp from the kernel.

The pulp is then pressed to extract the oil and the kernels are crushed in grinders to remove the shell so that oil can be extracted. The kernels may either be pressed on the spot or packed in bags for export to consuming countries to be crushed. The oil from the pulpy pericarp is kept in settling tanks for a time to allow unwanted material to settle, and the purified oil is then exported.

It is transported by tanker trucks and ships. Oil palm processing today is a fairly com­plicated operation because it is important that the oil produced should be of uniformly high quality. Palm oil was exported from West Africa as early as the eighteenth century but the old hand-pressing and crushing methods used at that time meant that the oil was of poor quality. To support a modern oil palm mill a large estate is required as well as much capital expenditure.

Estates were first set up in Zaire in 1911, and later in other parts of West Africa. In South-East Asia al­most the entire production is from estates. The crop is not ideally suited to smallholder cultivation as it requires regular attention in the field to combat pests and must also be quickly processed.

In Malaysia, how­ever, some oil palm is grown by smallholders on Land Development Schemes served by a central factory. In West Africa, production comes mainly from small­holders’ trees, especially in Nigeria, but the quality of the oil is maintained by the use of centralized mills.

Uses of Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Oil:

The oil palm gives the highest oil yield per hectare of any of the vegetable oils and is grown entirely for its oil. By-products from processing are relatively un­important, though waste material from the strippers may be used as fuel in the mill, and oil residues may be used as fertilizers or animal feeds. Palm oil, from the pericarp, is used as a cooking fat, in margarine, soap, candles and as a cleansing agent in the tin-plate industry. Palm kernel oil is used for margarine, cook­ing oil and soap.

World Production and Trade in Palm Oil:

The oil palm is grown in two main regions, namely West Africa and South-East Asia. It origi­nated in Africa and was grown there for centuries as a source of domestic cooking oil. Until the twentieth century, however, production was mainly from wild and semi-wild trees.

It has only been introduced into South-East Asia in relatively recent times and its acre­age in the region is still expanding. The main producers of palm oil are Malaysia (44 per cent), Nigeria (18 per cent), and Indonesia (12 per cent). The oil is exported to Europe and North America. Kernel oil is produced mainly by West African countries.

Malaysia:

The first estate was established in Malay­sia in 1917 but oil palm was not a popular crop until the 1950s when low rubber prices, the realization of the need for crop diversification and high palm oil prices combined to encourage planters to turn to the crop. An oil palm boom developed and much land was planted with the new crop.

The trend continued throughout the 1970s and by 1977 Malaysia was by far the largest world producer of palm oil and a major producer of kernels. Oil palm is mainly grown as an estate crop but some smallholders are able, with gov­ernment assistance to enter the industry. An important development is the processing of palm oil within the country which has been encouraged by the government as an aid to industrial development and a new source of employment for urban workers.

Palm oil is exported in its crude state to countries like the U.S.A. which have their own processing plants but processed and refined oil is exported to non-industrialized coun­tries like the oil-rich Middle Eastern states. Process­ing of the oil within the country adds to its value and enhances export earnings.

Nigeria:

Nigeria is the original home of the oil palm and it is very widely grown in the forest belt in the south-east, especially around Port Harcourt, on small farms, as semi-wild trees in forest groves and on estates at Sapele and Calabar, but estates account for less than 10 per cent of the total output.

More than half the palm oil is still used in the country as a source of cooking oil but the kernels and kernel oil are mainly exported. In the past the quality of the oil was poor, for the oil palm fruits were crushed by hand, and mar­kets began to be difficult to find.

The paying of bo­nuses for high quality oil, improved milling, research into the development of new varieties, and the use of centralized mills instead of older hand-pressing methods, has greatly improved both the quantity and the quality of Nigerian oil palm products, but because the Nigerian government places priority on basic food crops in a bid to reduce food imports less encourage­ment is given to the crop than in South-East Asia and Nigeria has been overtaken by Malaysia as the leading producer.

Others:

Oil palm was used and collected from wild trees in Zaire as it was in Nigeria in early times. Zaire was the first country in which estates were established. Its output today however is very small. In Indonesia oil palm is grown mainly on estates and, as in Malay­sia production is increasing. The main area of produc­tion is in southern Sumatra. Other producers of palm oil are the West African countries such as Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Benin.

Source # 2. Coconuts:

Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) are trees of the trop­ical coastlands. They require high temperatures and rainfall. Their ideal habitat is the sandy soils of the beaches and immediate inland areas, though they are grown successfully further inland in some places. Gen­erally speaking, however, they require maritime con­ditions and grow best around the shores of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The coconut tree, which may be 12 to 18 metres (50 to 60 ft) tall, may grow wild or be cultivated, and it has many uses apart from yielding oil. The large oval nuts grow at the base of the fronds and are harvested by climbing up the tree. The tree takes about 5 or 6 years to mature and then yields continuously for many years.

Harvesting takes place every 1 to 2 months and about fifty nuts may be obtained from one tree an­nually giving the equivalent of about 4.5 litres (1 gal­lon) of oil. The oil is obtained from the dried flesh of the nut or copra.

Coconuts are usually grown on smallholdings, though sometimes also on estates. In many tropical countries too, a few coconut trees may be grown in gardens or orchards to supply family requirements. Because most of the world’s coconuts are produced on smallholdings the yields are not always very high. Output has tended to diminish in many areas where the palms have been attacked by pests or diseases, and replanting is not always easy for smallholders with little capital.

In order to obtain the copra, the nuts must be dehusked, usually by splitting them on a sharp spike planted in the ground, and the nuts themselves are then cracked. The flesh inside the nut is then dried, either in the sun or in kilns. In kilns the copra is dried on a metal grill over a slow burning fire for three or four days.

The copra is then taken to factories, often sited in the exporting ports, which deal with output from a large number of producers. The dry copra is ground up into a meal by a disintegrator, cooked, and then pressed twice to ensure that all the oil is extracted. The oil must be filtered and separated from residual material.

This produces crude oil, which, though clean, must be further processed, usually in the importing country, to get rid of the distinctive smell. The use of coconut oil is tending to decline in favour of more easily processed oils such as groundnut and soya bean oil.

Uses and By-Products of the Coconut:

The main commercial product of the coconut is its copra, which is used in the making of margarine, soap, cooking oil and candles. Poonac, the milling residue, is a livestock feed. Many other parts of the coconut are also valuable. The husks can be used to obtain coir, a hard fibre used in rope-making and matting; the shells can be used as fuel, making excellent char­coal, or ground up to make a powder which can be used in making fibreboards and mosquito coils.

The nut itself can be used as a food instead of for copra, in which case it may be used fresh in cooking or as dessicated coconut for confectionary and cakes. In addition the flowers can be made into a fermented drink called toddy, widely used in southern India and Malaysia, and the stalks of the fronds make brushes and brooms. The coconut is thus a very useful plant apart from its importance as a cash crop.

World Production and Trade in Coconuts:

Coconuts are grown in a wide range of countries including India and Sri Lanka, the South-East Asian countries and the Pacific islands, West Africa and tropical Latin America. The major copra producers are fewer in number and are the countries where estate production, which is more effi­cient and is geared entirely to commercial output, is best developed.

The leading copra-producing countries are the Philippines (50 per cent) and Indonesia (20 per cent), followed by India and Sri Lanka. Malaysia is also a copra producer, though output is declining, partly because more valuable crops such as rubber, oil palm, and so on are preferred.

Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, New Hebrides and Fiji are the other main growers. The major copra producers usual­ly export most of their output and relatively little is used locally. The main importers are Britain and Europe.

Source # 3. Groundnuts:

Groundnuts (Arachis hypogoea), also known as pea­nuts, are the seeds of a low-growing leguminous plant. The flowering stalks of this plant bend over so that the seeds or ‘nuts’ form in the soil. They are not really nuts but a type of bean. Groundnuts originated in Brazil, but are now grown very widely in the tropical and sub-tropical areas.

They require warm tempera­tures and light to moderate rainfall of at least 380 mm (15 inches) in coastal areas with high humidity and between 625 and 890 mm (25 and 35 inches) in drier interior regions. The main requirement, however, is a rich, sandy soil. Such light soils are essential as the ‘nut’ ripens in the soil.

The crop is usually grown in seasonally dry tropical and sub-tropical climates, e.g. in the savanna regions of West Africa, in the monsoonal climates of India and China, as well as in southern U.S.A. where sandy soils are the most important fac­tor.

The groundnut is an annual crop, and because it is a leguminous crop which adds valuable nitrogen to the soil, it is often grown in rotation with other crops. In West Africa, for instance, it is grown in rotation or intercropped with millet and Guinea corn by peasant farmers. In the U.S.A. it is grown on mechanized mix­ed farms in the Cotton Belt.

Cultivation in most of the tropical growing areas is highly labour-intensive, though there are some large mechanized farms in Senegal. Fertilizer is applied with the seeds when they are planted and the nuts are picked by hand. The outer shells are usually removed in the producing regions to minimize transport costs and the nuts are sacked for export.

The farms must be situated fairly near to main lines of transport to facili­tate export. The exported nuts are crushed to obtain the oil in the importing countries, though some crush­ing plants have been established in West Africa and India. In the U.S.A. the groundnuts are grown in the same regions as cotton, which also yields oilseeds, and the same mills are used to process both.

Uses and By-Products of Groundnuts:

Groundnut oil is used in margarine, cooking oil and soap, and has industrial uses in plastics manufacture. Groundnuts, however, may also be used as a foodstuff in their own right, especially in China, India and parts of West Africa. In the form of salted peanuts they are also popular in the U.S.A. and Europe and they have minor uses in sweets and confectionery. Peanut butter is another food product of groundnuts.

The main by­product is the residue left after the nuts have been crushed, which makes an excellent feed for cattle and other animals. The shells may be ground into a meal and yield a little oil. They can be made into a textile fibre but this is not an important use. Apart from all these uses the groundnut is a useful crop for the part it plays in farm rotations and in enriching the soil.

World Production and Trade in Groundnuts:

India (31.5 per cent) is by far the largest ground­nut producer. The crop is grown mainly in the drier areas of the Deccan and Punjab and ranks as the second most important industrial crop after cot­ton. Much of the crop is used locally but India is also an exporter. China (16 per cent) is the second largest producer, the main groundnut growing areas being in the North China Plain.

Nigeria was traditionally the largest West African producer, but output has declined to 2 per cent of the world output. The crop is grown in the dry savanna lands of the north. Senegal has the advantage of being the nearest producer to Europe, thus facilitating exports.

In Senegal and other minor West African producing countries, especially the Gambia, Upper Volta and Niger, exports of groundnuts form an important item in the economy, often account­ing for more than 90 per cent of their exports. Sudan, also on the desert margins has raised production during the 1970s to 5 per cent of the world total.

The U.S.A., the third largest producer, has really only developed the crop since the Second World War, when the non­-availability of oil seeds led to the growth of a domestic U.S. industry. Output is continuing to increase and rose by 25 per cent during the 1970s. The chief area for groundnuts is in the South, where they are rotated with cotton or other crops on mixed farms.

Unlike other producers, the U.S.A. is a highly efficient grow­er, the crop being raised with the aid of mechaniza­tion. Groundnuts are also grown in South America, notably in Argentina and Brazil, mainly in cotton- growing areas. The crop is increasingly important in Indonesia in seasonally dry regions and in Burma.

Source # 4. Soya Beans:

Soya beans (Glycine max) are a traditional crop of China, but have been introduced in a number of other countries. They are an annual, leguminous crop, and in appearance resemble the dwarf or french bean. They grow to a height of about 1 metre (3 ft) and the bean pods are rough and hairy.

They scatter easily when dry and ripe and are thus difficult to harvest though soya bean combine harvesters have been developed in the U.S.A. The plant is a warm temperate to cool tem­perate crop, requiring summer temperatures of around 21°C (70°F)and moderate rainfall (around 1,015 mm or 40 inches). Moisture-retentive soils are ideal but a low atmospheric humidity is better than a moist at­mosphere.

Generally speaking they require the same conditions as maize (corn). The beans are sown in spring and harvested in late summer or early autumn. Since they are a leguminous crop, they are very valua­ble in crop rotations. In the U.S.A. they are grown extensively in the Corn Belt, where they are rotated with corn, oats, hay and wheat. In China they are grown in association with one or more crops includ­ing wheat, millet or kaoliang, maize, and cotton. Soya beans are increasingly grown in Argentina and southern Brazil.

Uses and By-Products of Soya Beans:

Soya beans have only a relatively low oil content of 15—20 per cent compared with 65—70 per cent for oil palm pericarps or 35-40 per cent for copra or groundnuts, but the fact that they are so widely grown makes them the most important source of vege­table oil in world commerce. Production has also greatly increased from 47 million tonnes in 1967 to 78 million tonnes by 1977.

By-products of crushing the beans for oil are residual fertilizers and cattle fod­ders. Soya beans have many other important uses. In the U.S.A. they may be chopped as a fodder, made into silage or grazed as a green fodder in the fields, either before or after the beans have been harvested.

In China they are a very important food crop with many uses. They may be used for cooking oil, or as a fresh vege­table or may be fermented to produce a sauce or paste. Soya sauces are indispensable to Chinese cookery and also form the basic ingredient of most Western sauces.

The fermented paste becomes bean curd or towfu, widely used in China and Japan. In Indonesia the beans are fermented to form tempeh, a kind of vege­table cheese. In addition soya beans yield soya bean milk, another valuable foodstuff.

Apart from its oil content the soya bean is very rich in protein, richer than any other widely cultivated leguminous crop. This is the reason for its great impor­tance and value as a foodstuff and has led to newer uses. The protein can be extracted to form the basis of synthetic food, and much experimentation and some actual production of synthetic foodstuffs has been carried out in the U.S.A.

For instance, with the addition of suitable fats and flavourings and process­ing to give the appropriate texture, soya bean protein can form the basis of artificial meat which is not only as tasty and as nutritious as ordinary meat, but, if pro­duced on a large scale, is much cheaper. This use may be of great importance in the future.

As an oil, the soya bean has many uses. It is used as a cooking oil, in margarine, and in soaps, paints and lubricants. In China it has traditionally been used as an illuminant in oil lamps, as a waterproofing agent, e.g. for umbrellas, as a lubricant, and in paints, var­nishes and printing inks.

World Production and Trade in Soya Beans:

Soya beans are produced in three main areas of the world, namely the Far East, the U.S.A. and South America. They are a traditional crop of China, which dominated world production until the Second World War. Soya beans had been grown in the U.S.A. since the early twentieth century but the need to produce their own oilseeds during the war led to a great expan­sion in U.S. oilseed production, especially of soya beans.

The U.S.A. now dominates world production of the crop. The Corn Belt of the U.S.A. and the North China Plain and Manchuria in China are the main growing regions followed by the newly developed growing area in southern Brazil. Other long-established growers of the crop are Japan and Indonesia, while in Argentina and the U.S.S.R. soya beans are of relatively recent introduction.

Chi­nese production is mainly for home consumption as is that of other Far Eastern countries and the U.S.S.R. However, the U.S.A. not only supplies its own very large home market but also exports to Europe and other countries.

Source # 5. Olives:

The olive (Olea europaea) is the fruit of a tree of the Mediterranean lands and has been cultivated in south­ern Europe, North Africa and South-West Asia since ancient times. The tree develops slowly, and when fully grown presents a gnarled and twisted appearance. It is not very tall and its foliage is not thick.

It takes as long as 15 to 20 years to mature, but when it does begin to bear fruit it will continue to yield several hundred pounds of fruit annually for as long as 100 years. It requires little attention. The fruit is harvest­ed in late summer by shaking the trees to detach the olives, which fall into sheets spread on the ground, and it must be processed immediately to maintain quality.

The olive requires hot dry summers, cool winters without severe frosts, and rain only in the cooler months. It is thus almost limited to the Mediterra­nean regions. It is highly drought-resistant and can thrive on as little as 205 mm (8 inches) of rain. How­ever, better yields are usually obtained in somewhat better watered areas, and irrigation is used in Califor­nia, though rarely in the Mediterranean shorelands.

Soil type is rarely a limiting factor so long as drainage is good, and the olive will thrive on thin stony soils where few other crops could survive. Olive trees are widely spaced and crops such as wheat or vegetables may be grown between the trees where soil condi­tions are suitable.

Uses of the Olive:

Although some olives are used directly as a food­stuff, the vast majority are pressed for oil. Livestock farming is of relatively little importance in the Medi­terranean regions and thus olive oil is a vital substitute for animal fats as a cooking oil, for food processing and as a salad dressing. It is the finest and most highly priced of the edible oils and as a result little is employ­ed in industry. Some is, however, used in soap and in the pharmaceuticals industry.

World Production and Trade in Olives:

Distribution of olive cultivation is strictly limited by climatic factors and the olive is still mainly grown in the Mediterranean shorelands. It has not been widely spread to Mediterranean climatic zones in other parts of the world, the only significant producer outside the Mediterranean Sea being California. Olive oil, too, though a valuable oil used in small quantities in all parts of the world, is mainly used in the producing areas where it is a traditional foodstuff.

The main producers are Italy (31 per cent), Spain (28 per cent) and Greece, followed by Tunisia, Tur­key, Portugal, Morocco and Syria.

Source # 6. Cottonseed:

Cottonseed is really only a by-product of cotton cul­tivation for fibre, for it would be uneconomic to grow cotton for its seeds alone. After ginning to remove the cotton fibre, the seeds still have several uses. The very fine hairs or linters adhering to the seeds are used by the pulp industry in the production of paper and rayon.

Synthetic rubber and explosives also use cot­ton linters. The seeds are then crushed to extract the oil, which is a good, cheap substitute for olive oil, and is used for cooking and in salad dressings, as well as in margarine and soap. The residue is made into live­stock feeds. Cottonseed oil production is geared to cotton fibre production and comes of course from cotton growing regions.

Source # 7. Linseed Oil:

Linseed oil is obtained from the flax plant but the varieties of flax grown for seed are shorter in the stem and more prolific in seed production. They are also grown in warmer, drier areas than the flax raised for linen fibres. Linseed oil is a particularly useful oil in industry as it is one of a group of oils known as dry­ing oils.

It is thus used in paints, varnishes, linoleum floor covering, oilcloth and soap. Linseed is grown mainly in Argentina, Canada, India, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.. Production in Argentina and Canada has increased substantially in recent years.