Palm oil production
05/08/2019
Women cooking the palm seed
In Zogbépimé the oil palm is also a great source of income for its habitants. They will use the palm seed in every aspect to avoid waste. The manufacturing process begins by the peeling of the palm seed, then separate them to keep the best seed. After this, they will grind the fruit and boil the solution with water. The fat deposit of the solution will be used as a soap really popular in Togo resold on the market. The cover of the fruits will be dry and used as a cheap combustible for fire used for other activities.
About the palm trees for the palm seed process : they are used during 15 years until they can't collect juice anymore dur to their size. They will uproot the tree, let him rot between 2 weeks and 2 months to get the famous juice named Palm Wine. However people prefers to drink the distillation of wine, Sodabi as I explain in the previous article. Finally, they will let rot the trunk few more months to pick up fungi and larvae and the rotten trunk will be a valuable fertilizer for future production.
During all this process, my objective was to analyze by making notes how they work around palm oil, how they are using totally the fruit by making no waste, a sustainable process from the collect to the sell. It was really interesting and allow me to better understand the income generating activities the purpose of my mission.