Palm oil is the world’s largest source of vegetable oil and comes from trees that grow within 10 degrees of the Equator.
The trees have reddish fruit that grows in bunches weighing 20 kilograms on average and takes five to six months to develop from pollination to maturity. Within each fruit is a single seed, the palm kernel, surrounded by an oily pulp. Both the pulp and the kernel yield palm oil when crushed. Palm is the highest-yielding oilseed crop, requiring less than half of the land needed by other crops to produce the equivalent amount of vegetable oil.