Oil Palm Plantation in Tawau, Malaysia

Wednesday, 26 April, 2023 09:37:04 AM

Oil Palms in Sabah > Oil Palm Plantation in Tawau

Oil Palm Plantation in Tawau

Oil Palm Re-planting
The economic value cycle of the oil palms trees is about 25 years, after which the old trees are replanted. Oil palms saplings are planted after land clearing and preparation works.

Preparation works includes :
1- Lining,
2- Holing
3- Terracing for hilly areas
4- Drainage for low-lying areas.

Malaysia oil palm plantations area increase year by year, this may caused the primary forest in Malaysia decreasing in area year by year.
But this is no so as new oil palm plantation are actually established on and logged-over forests and in areas previously cultivated with rubber, cocoa and coconut. Almost two thirds of Malaysia is still covered by forest area of permanent forest reserve - 19.54 million hectares.

Sabah has given rise to a new breed of entrepreneurs.

In Tawau over the past decades many cocoa plantations have switched from cocoa to planting oil palm.

Oil palm has a huge worldwide demand and fetching top dollar in exports. These new oil palm plantations with crop mature the last few years came the creation of many new millionaires. Even when the prices dropped, most of the planters were still raking in profits as their cost of maintenance and production was minimal. In turn the planters invest their money in local property market.

Oil palm plantation in Malaysia has great biodiversity than in the case of annual cereals, vegetables and other short-term cropping systems of the world.

A typical oil palm plantation is teemed with 268 species of flora and fauna, which include microbes, insects, arthropods, reptiles, fish, birds and small mammals. In addition to the rearing of fish, cattle, and goats together intercropping with fruit trees, timber species, dry land rice and vegetables, thereby adding to the rich diversity of life in the plantations.

Staff Quarters at Bukit Tukok Estate

BUKIT TUKOK ESTATE
KALABAKAN, 85 Kilometers from Tawau
Sabah Softwoods Berhad’s operating activities are on two blocks of land totalling 61,000 hectares sub-leased from Sapangar Sdn Bhd. of Yayasan Sabah. These blocks are commonly referred to as “Brumas” and “Kalabakan”.

Oil Palm Estates of Sabah Softwood:
1- Cenderamata Estate
2- Dumpas Estate
3- Mawang Estate
4- Bukit Batu Estate
5- Kapilit Estate
6- Kumansi Estate
7- Bukit Tukok Estate

Palm oil is the most traded vegetable oil in the world. The oil is obtained from the mesocarp of the palm fruit, by cooking, mashing and pressing. In this process, the seeds are separated and after cracking and removing the shell, the kernel can be processed to yield palm kernel oil and palm kernel cake.

Palm Oil has been used as a dietary constituent for five thousand years. The first oil palm plantation in Malaysia started in 1917 when Oil Palm trees was first introduced to Malaysia as an ornamental tree. The seeds were iat first sowed on a tract of land in Kuala Selangor and the seedlings were later planted on a large scale in Tennamaram Estate by M. H. Fauconnier, . This paved the way for the prolific expansion of oil palm cultivation in Malaysia.

Soon, Alexander Guthrie, founded the Guthrie stable of estates and John Middleton Sime teamed up with Henry Darby to establish the Sime Darby group of estates. The two were later joined by Socfin and United Plantations which remain to this day as major players in the Malaysian oil palm industry.

Today the largest Palm Oil Company in Malaysia is Synergy Drive Sdn. Bhd. which was formed after merging :
1- Golden Hope Plantations Bhd.,
2- Sime Darby Bhd.
3- Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd.

Synergy Drive Sdn. Bhd. (the combination of 3 companies) have more than 500,000 hectares (1,300,000 acres) of Oil Palm Plantation in Malaysia and Indonesia, producing more than 2 million tons crude palm oil every year. This is equivalent to 13% of Malaysia's total production.

Oil Palm Plantation in Sabah
Malaysia's largest agricultural product - the Palm Oil. Both local and international demand growing steadily.
Sabah is the largest palm oil producer in Malaysia, It has about 1.2 million hectares of some of the highest-yielding oil palm plantations (21.4 metric tones per hectare) producing 5 million MT of palm oil yearly.

Palm oil will soon replace soya bean oil as the mostly widely consumed edible vegetable oil in the world. Palm oil's nutritional value and the potency of its phytonutrients, not to mention its growing use in biofuel, are set to establish the oil's global dominance,

Before Indonesia took over, Malaysia was the biggest producer of palm oil in the world and was an internationally recognized authority in palm oil cultivation and processing technologies, The country produces 14 million metric tones of palm oil annually (2004 world output 30.6 million MT) from about 4 million hectares of oil palm. Combined with the 12 million MT produced in neighboring Indonesia, the region commands 86% of the world's production.

Today, the world’s largest palm oil producer is Indonesia.

Cooking Oil	Due to its low rate of duration, palm oil is indeed an economical cooking oil
Margarine	Palm Oil margarine can be easily spread and resistant to rancidity
Shortening	Palm Oil shortening is suitable for making bread, cakes, pastries and sweets
Confectionery	Chocolates and confectionery made with palm based cocoa butter substitute are closely similar to those produced with cocoa butter.
Non-Diary Creamers	Palm based non-diary creamer gives smoother, taster and more satisfying cup of coffee

Oil Palm Plantation Aerial View

WHAT IS PALM OIL

Oil Palm Tree and Its Fruits