There are different stages through which palm oil is being produced. These stages come with hard labour and non can be skipped to achieve the other.
The stages include:
- The cutting stage: In this stage, an expert in climbing palm-trees is being paid to cut down the fruits because, the method in climbing other trees is very much different from that of palm trees. In some tribes, the palm tree climbers perform some rituals before climbing.
The gathering stage: Here, you'll have to gather all the palm fruits and bring them home for safety because in Nigeria, a cup of palm fruit is sold for #1000 or #1500
Picking stage: For me, this is the most boring stage because the palm fruits are being handpicked one after the other. Though, I believe that those producing palm oil in large quantity will have other easy methods of picking the fruits.
- The cooking stage: Here, the fruits are cooked till they become soft and due for pounding.
- The pounding stage: this is where moter and pistol comes into use. The outcome of the pounding reminds me of a sweet African delicacy called Akidi
- The washing stage: this is where the chaffs, the kernel, and the oil in form of tick water is being separated unlike the industrial production where machines do all the work.
- Finally, the boiling stage: This is where the tick water that's gotten from the pounded palm fruits will be boiled to squeeze out the palm oil as the water in it gets dried.
My share of the palm oil( red oil)😋