The plantation area is located in Tumbang Diring village or now becoming Datahkapas village, Central Kapuas Sub district, Kapuas district, the province of Central Kalimantan.

It covers about 16,500 hectares with 13,601 hectares or 82.43 % potential land for the development of oil palm plantation with the following breakdown:

• moderately suitable (S2): 10,672 hectares or 64.68 %
• marginally suitable (S3): 2,593 hectares or 15.72 %
• actually not suitable (N1): 336 hectares or 2.04%
• permanently not suitable: 2,889 hectares or 17.57 % of the total area.

ACCESSIBILITY

Up till now, several CPO based chemicals products are still completely dependent on imports, such as isopropyl palmitate products, isopropyl miristate, palmitate acid, and oleat acid. The development of domestic chemical industry will have a bright future with large demands from cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies, amounting to 600 companies.

Studies conducted by Seafast Center IPB indicate that oleochemical products are very prospective to be developed as a response to fluctuative CPO price as opposed to the supply-demand condition of raw vegetable oil that is currently in a position of supply excess. The world’s oleochemical demand is estimated to be still in excess for a few years.

The over demand on oleochemical products is a good indication of its prospect. According to FAO, the growth of demand for oleochemical products reaches 3% per year.

The biggest growth of oleochemical industry is predicted to occur in Asia. This is supported by the fact of the increasing number of vegetable oil production growth in Asia.

Palm oil was originally cultivated in West Africa, where palm trees were interplanted in traditional agricultural production systems as well as other annual crops. Nowadays, palm oil production has become the main source of income for many rural residents in South East Asia, West Arfica and Central America. There are estimated 1.5 million farmers growing palm oil in Indonesia. With such quantity, palm oil not only turn into one of the main economic pillar of a country, but also as a catalyst in rural development and political stability.

Almost every household on the globe recognizes the use of the oil as a cooking oil, as one of the ingredients in margarine and many processed foods. Palm oil has also become a crucial element of many soaps, washing powders and personal care products, treating wounds and as biofuel.

In the year of 1961, there was a significant increase in palm oil trade with Nigeria holding 74% of the world’s total plantations (FAO 2002). However, in the early 1970s Indonesia’s monocrop plantations had taken over the position from Nigeria.

By 2000, Indonesia and Malaysia was confirmed of hosting over half of the world’s total plantation area, outnumbering Nigeria with just over 30%.

Palm oil demand world wide of estimated 36.5 million metric tonnes in 2008 and the keep increasing demand have opened a valuable opportunity to invest in the palm plantation industry in principal palm oil exporting countries such as Indonesia.

In the times of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, palm oil turned into the most wanted commodity by the English traders. Moreover, palm oil also served as the main ingredient for soap production such as Lever Brothers’ “Sunlight” and the American Palmolive. In 1870, palm oil is declared the main export commodity for some West African countries like Ghana and Nigeria.

Palm tree was introduced to Java by the Dutch in 1848. The early plantations were mostly established and operated by the British whose Sime Darby was one of them. Since the year of 1960, a great palm plantation scheme has been used by the government in order to battle poverty. Transmigrants are given around 4 hectares of land to be planted with oil palm or rubber. They were given 20 years to pay off their debts for the land.

Next, physical refining process is done to remove odours and colouration to produce refined bleached deodorized palm oil, or RBDPO, and free pure fatty acids which are important component in soap, detergent powder and other hygiene products. RBDPO is the basic oil product commonly traded in world’s commodity markets.

Palm is also used in biodiesel production as a simply-processed palm oil mixed with petrodiesel or processed through transesterification to create a palm oil methyl ester blend which meets the international EN 14214 specification, with glycerin as a by-product. This process differs to each country depends on each export market’s demand.

The massive economic growth in China and India has become one of the reasons of there is more demand of vegetable oils. The trend implies that more people favor to have their food prepared with vegetable oils.

Indonesia and Malaysia are known as major CPO producers in the world. 83% of world’s total production come from both countries as well as 92% of world’s total export. In the future, Indonesia’s role will be more significant due to its larger territory compared to Malaysia’s.

Growers in Indonesia are also increasing production of palm oil to meet the global demand spurred by biofuels, with the government looking for it to become the world’s top producer of palm oil.

The year of 2000 marked Asia as the world’s manufacturer of vegetable oil and fat with a primary total production of 39.3 million tons or 37.43% of the total world production. And also in the same year, palm oil became the most produced and internationally traded vegetable oil (40% of all vegetable oils) leaving soybean oil in 21% (FAO 2002).

During the period of 1960-2000, Asia’s production of oil and fat has grown an average of 53.63% year.

Red palm oil is known to be healthier than refined (discolored) palm oil. This is caused by some mitigating substances found in the red palm oil. These compounds are:

• betacarotenes (present in higher amounts than in regular palm oil)
• co-enzyme Q10 (ubiquinone)
• squalene
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin E

As non-food products, palm oil is the source of oleochemical ie ester, fatty acid, surfactan, glycerol and derivative. The end non-food products made from palm oil include liquid detergents, soaps, and shampoos main or base ingredients. In its solid form, palm oil provides its usefulness as the base for lipsticks, waxes and polishes. During a steel manufacturing process, palm oil is also used to reduce friction.

Palm oil, as well as other vegetable oils, has also been used to make biodiesel for internal combustion engines. Biodiesel has been promoted as a form of biomass to be a renewable energy source to reduce carbon dioxide emission released into the atmosphere. Biodiesel also holds an important role in a national energy supply diversification. Scientists found that biodiesel made of palm oil grown of established plantations can decrease green house emission effectively.

Another possibility to exploit palm oil is currently being done in South Korea. The scientists are researching CPO waste processing with 72% water content as biodiesel energy. When completed, not only the CPO contributes the source of renewable energy, but its waste as well.

Palm oil can also be applied to treat wounds. Unrefined palm oil is supposed to have additional antimicrobial effects, but research does not clearly confirm this.