Where does Oil palm come from?
The oil palm comes from West Africa, along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Native from Gambia to Angola, it fed West African kitchens for centuries before it was planted in Southeast Asia, which now grows most of the world's palm oil.
A palm of the African forest
Elaeis guineensis grows wild in the rainforest belt of West and western Central Africa. Its greatest genetic variety is found in south-eastern Nigeria and western Cameroon, and fossil evidence points to the Niger delta as its most likely centre of origin. Its name refers to Guinea, the old name for that coast. Wild and semi-wild groves are so common in the forest zone that they are put down to early domestication; in Nigeria alone they cover about 2.5 million hectares.
Red oil, palm wine and soap
In West Africa the oil palm has been part of village life for many centuries. Unrefined red palm oil is still the favourite cooking oil there, and palm wine is tapped from the trees. During Britain's Industrial Revolution, palm oil was in high demand as a lubricant for machines and as a base for soap. That 19th-century trade relied entirely on wild and semi-wild groves, and by around 1870 palm oil was the main export of some West African countries.
Why people say Malaysia or Indonesia
Southeast Asia's plantations began with just four seedlings, planted in the botanic garden of Bogor, on Java, in 1848. Their offspring founded a plantation industry in Sumatra from 1911 and in Malaya from 1917. For decades young palms there often needed pollinating by hand, until an African weevil that pollinates them was brought to Malaysia in 1981. Since 2007 Indonesia has been the world's largest producer; in 2023–24 it made 57% of all palm oil.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Elaeis guineensis ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Palm oil ↗ · uses.plantnet-project.org ↗
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