Palm oil is an economically important and versatile vegetable oil
that is used as raw material for both food and non-food products.
Large red and orange ‘fresh fruit bunches’ grow on palm oil trees,
which can be broken up into individual fruits. Both the flesh and
the kernel of the fruit yield palm oil. Each fresh fruit bunch weighs
between 10 kg and 40 kg, and the flesh of the fruit (not the kernel)
yields over 50 per cent oil (Food and Agricultural Organization of
the United Nations (FAO), 2002)