Palm Kernel Statistics
The Bulletin of the Imperial Institute contains an article calling attention to the magnitude of the trade in palm kernels, and discussing its commercial aspect. The following table shows the quantities and values from each of the chief producing countries in West Africa in 1912:—
| Quantities. | Values. | |||
| British Possessions: | Tons. | Tons. | £ | £ |
| Gambia | 445 | 6,518 | ||
| GoldCoast | 14,629 | 205,365 | ||
| Nigeria | 184,624 | 2,797,411 | ||
| Sierra Leone | 50,751 | 793,178 | ||
| ——— | 250,449 | ——— | 3,802,472 | |
| French Possessions: | ||||
| Dahomey | 36,708 | 535,937 | ||
| Gaboon | 354 | 4,671 | ||
| Guinea | 5,054 | 41,079 | ||
| Ivory Coast | 6,692 | 70,710 | ||
| Senegal | 1,736 | 28,221 | ||
| ——— | 50,544 | ——— | 680,618 | |
| Belgian Congo | — | — | 110,835 | |
| German Possessions: | ||||
| Kamerun | 15,742 | 220,300 | ||
| Togoland | 11,456 | 168,978 | ||
| ——— | 27,198 | ——— | 389,278 | |
| Totals | 328,191 | £4,983,203 |
This article also gives the average value of the kernels, which in Hamburg ranges from £18 2s. to £19 2s. per ton (June, 1914); the value in Liverpool was £17 17s. 6d. to £18 18s. 9d. per ton in July last, and in September was £16 7s. 6d. to £17 10s. per ton.
Palm kernel oil is used for the same purposes as cocoa-nut oil, viz., the manufacture of soap and candles and the preparation of various edible fats, such as margarine, cooking fats, vegetable “butters,” and chocolate fats. By suitable treatment it can be separated into a liquid portion (olein) and a hard white fat (palm kernel stearin), and in this way the consistence of the material can be varied for the preparation of different edible products. These edible palm kernel oil products are prepared on a very large scale in Germany and elsewhere, and are largely imported into this country. With palm kernels at £17 to £18 per ton, the value of palm kernel oil in the United Kingdom is from £36 5s. to £36 15s. per ton, with Ceylon cocoa-nut oil at £40 per ton.
It is added that British oil-seed crushers who undertook to work them would find no difficulty in getting a market for the oil among soap-makers and makers of edible fats. Although the article points out that some difficulty might be experienced in finding a market quickly in the United Kingdom for the palm kernel cake, because English farmers do not readily take up feeding stuffs which are new to them, it will be gathered from what has already been said that, thanks to the initiative of Sir Owen Phillipps, this difficulty is likely to be overcome, and the opportunity is a particularly good one now that other feeding stuffs are becoming more expensive, as that is a point which will have great influence. It is not a new feeding material, but all the evidence points simply to the fact that it has only to become better known and available on a large scale to result in mutual benefits to the farmer, the miller, the manufacturer, and the West African colonies.