Bulk Vegetable Oil

The red palm oil is a common ingredient in the kitchen of almost every kind of dish in Nigeria. He never misses in the kitchen of every Nigerian, and perhaps all Africans. This edible vegetable oil, is prominently displayed for sale on the African markets and shops in the bottles and plastic containers. When we see them, we do not think the source is and how come on the market.

Palm oil, after many years are still processed manually. Only a few large processors are wide oil production this true source of cooking oil in Nigeria. Akwa Ibom, a coastal state in southeastern Nigeria is one of the areas where oil in Nigeria in large quantities are produced. This treatment is a common vocation and trade of women in the state of Akwa Ibom.

It is a region with an abundance of various agricultural products. Over 85% of indigenous people live in rural areas and nearly 90% of them are engaged in a form of agricultural activity or the other. It is also one of the areas where oil palm (Elaeis Guinaensis) develops. It is a predominant feature in the landscape of this region. There are several species common in southern Nigeria. It is an economic value to the natives of this region and most often grown for commercial benefit. Oil palm is a crop very economical values by its owners either in plantations or simply grown in small quantities. Oil palms are mostly grown and processed for its oil (edible), soap, carpets, fibers etc.

Ownership of palm oil by the people of Akwa Ibom is very popular because of its value cash crops. People who own oil palm trees scavenger accordingly. Although there were a number of large plantations in the 60s and 70s, most of them have been exhausted or more in production. However, it is commendable that some government agencies and contractors have begun looking for oil palm plantations and processing of oil, but most of the oil produced in this state is still predominantly produced by the inhabitants of rural areas, women .

Given the above, owners of small-scale palm oil crops depend on their small farms to supplement the market for wholesale vegetable oil locally and nationally, also. This method of oil processing plant is still largely manual, mostly by hand.

The processing of fruit in the vegetable oil is most often carried by women. It begins by harvesting ripe fruit that grows in bunches weighing 20-30 kilograms. Women work together in groups of 2 or 3, or from either a single family or neighbors or even paid help. 10-20 clusters of ripe fruit of palm are cut and assembled. The harvested fruit is then cut into smaller groups and doused with water, then covered with thick jute bags or banana leaves to aid fermentation and make it easier for seeds to recover easily from stems thorny.

Two or three days after the seeds are harvested, cleaned and packed in iron drums and boiled. This process is tedious. Fire lit by the fire of wood collected is usually prepared the night before and at intervals, has rekindled the fire to keep hot food at all times. From 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning the seeds cooked with fleshy pericarp became soft and tender are dug with a small basket or bowl sieve into a land of mortar dug-out, which was equipped with a metal drum. The seeds are boiled and then mashed with a wooden pestle to separate the fleshy pericarp of the seeds of the core.

The next step is to scoop the mixture on a flat or hollow on the ground had been covered with banana leaves. The seeds are then separated from the core of the fiber pulp. This is then collected in a hollow cylindrical press. The key is there.