Agbanga Karite - African owned wholesaler of Unrefined Shea Butter & African Black Soap
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History of Palm Oil Trade History of Palm Oil Trade The oil palm, Elaeis guineensis, is native to equatorial West Africa. The main oil palm belt of West Africa runs through the southern latitudes of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and into Zaire and Angola. Humans have consumed palm oil for tens of thousands of years. Written records of palm oil are available from Portuguese travelers to West Africa in the 15th century. However, fatty residues with analytical characteristics of oxidized palm oil dating back to 5000 BC have been found in Egyptian pyramids. Exports of palm oil to Europe in large quantities began in the late 18th century. After the anti-slavery legislation in the first part of the 19th century, traders needed an alternative to the lucrative slavery trade from West Africa to North & South America and the Caribbean, and trade in palm oil increased tremendously. The establishment of trade in palm oil from West Africa was mainly the result of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. As people in Europe began to take sanitation and hygiene seriously, demand for soap increased, resulting in the demand for vegetable oil suitable for soap manufacture and other technical uses, such as tinplating. In the early 1870s, exports of palm oil from the Niger Delta were 25 000 to 30 000 tons per year and by 1911 the British West African territories exported 87 000 tons (Table 1). Africa led the world in production and export of
palm oil throughout the first half of the 20th century, lead by
Nigeria and Zaire. By 1966, however, Malaysia and Indonesia had
surpassed Africa's total palm oil production. The oil palm was introduced
into South Asia in 1848 as an ornamental tree. Commercial exploitation
as an export crop started in Sumatra after 1910 and in Malaysia
in the 1920s. Palm oil developments in South East Asia continued,
and today, South East Asia exports far more palm oil than Africa
(Table 2), with Malaysia producing over 50% of the world's total
refined palm oil exports.
Purchase red palm oil | Oil Palm Varieties | Impacts of Oil Palm Plantations Sources: - Kurt Berger. Palm Oil. http://www.britanniafood.com/german/invite_02.htm |
Shea Butter Call us Toll Free 9-4 PST M-F 1-800-664-8005 Outside the USA & Canada, call 1-360-866-0080 SUBSCRIBE TO OUR Current Sale Items
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