Most of our fresh fruit bunches are transported to our own mills for processing into crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel (PK). We have seven mills which are constructed within respective plantations in order to reduce the transportation costs, and to ensure that our fresh fruit bunches (FFB) arrive in time at our mills with minimal spoilage and maximum quality standards.
FFBs are sterilized by applying high-pressure steam, to deactivate the enzymes in the palm fruits and to separate the fruitlets from the palm bunches. After the steaming process, the palm fruitlets are crushed in a pressing machine to obtain crude palm oil and palm kernel. Waste and water is then cleared and separated from the CPO by means of a centrifuge. The empty fruit bunches and waste effluent arising from the process are used as fertilizers in the plantations.
Our eight existing mills have a total processing capacity of 2,610,000 tons of FFB per annum. In FY2008, our mills produced 322,678 tons of CPO with an average CPO extraction of 22.83% and average PK extraction rate of 5.40%. We will continue to monitor our milling capacity to ensure that we can accommodate expected increases in FFB production from our plantations.
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