Description

Palm kernel oil {PKO} is derived from the milling of cracked palm kernel nuts while palm kernel cake is a bye-product gotten from the processing of palm kernel oil. It forms a very important part of the feeds of animal.

Palm kernel oil {PKO} is an important and cheap source of oil for soap manufacturers ,bio-fuel, cooking oil, vegetable ghee, Shortenings, Margarine, CBS,CBE, ice cream, dough, creaming, coating, and other specialty fats while palm kernel cakes are used in animal feed production.

“Oils” is a collective term for more or less viscous, generally organic-chemical liquids. Depending on their chemical composition, a distinction may be drawn between fatty, essential, mineral and silicone oils. Fatty oils include liquid, semisolid and solid products of vegetable and animal origin. Palm kernel oil is a white to yellowish oil of vegetable origin which is solid at normal temperatures and is obtained from the kernels of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). It is one of the best oils. Palm kernel oil is different from palm oil, which is obtained from the flesh of the fruit.

Four {4} products namely palm kernel oil, palm kernel cake, palm kernel sludge and palm kernel shell {crushed} which is used as a bio-fuel can be gotten from palm kernel nuts.

The major raw material required for the production of palm kernel oil is palm kernel nuts. It must be free from microbial or insect damage, shell and breakage must not be more 1% in order to reduce the free fatty acid {FFA} content.

The required startup capital estimate for a one ton per day capacity palm kernel oil production plant is N 5,890,000.00 and the business is expected to generate a net profit after tax of N 556,686.81 and N 626,630.56 in the first and second year. The manpower required to run the business is about 10 persons.

The market for palm kernel oil is national. With a population of over 140 million people and an estimated national population growth rate of 5.7% per annum ,an average economic growth rate of 3.5% per annum in the past five {5} years, Nigeria has a large market for palm kernel oil. The demand is high but local supply dwindling production outputs.

In 2005, in order to stimulate local production and attain self sufficiency in edible oil production, the government introduced the presidential initiative on the development of edible oil over a period not exceeding three {3} years. Under this initiative, attention was focused on the promotion of eleven scheduled oil seed crops which are oil palm seed, groundnut seed, Soya beans seed, cotton seed etc and production target was set for each of the crops under the programme as follow

1. Oil Palm: 1 million hectares capacity of producing 15 million fresh fruit bunches
2. Groundnut: 15 million tones annually
3. Soya beans: 670,000 1 million tones per annum
4. Seed Cotton: 1 million tones over the plan period

After six {6} years of the initiative, the domestic edible oil demand far exceeds the national production. The short fall in supply being estimated at about 50,000 tones per year.

From the above figures, it is clear that there is a large and sustainable market for palm kernel oil {PKO} in Nigeria.