Elaeis guineensis or more commonly known are the palm tree has its roots in West Africa. The tree was growing wildly in the region and later has been developed into an agriculture crop. The palm tree was first introduced to Malaysia in early 1870s. During that time, the country was known as Malaya. It was not until the year 1917 that palm trees was planted as a commercial crop in a rural area call Tennamaran in Selangor. That project was the initial step in making Malaysia as one of the top producer of palm oil in the world.
The palm oil industry in Malaysia grew very quickly in the 1950s to 1960s. The rapid growth was the result of the Malaysian government effort to reduce the country economic dependency on rubber and tin. Another of the country major project is reduce poverty in the nation thus land settlement schemes for growing palm oil trees was introduced to small land owners. The combined effort has produced hundred of plantation sites in a short time frame. Until today, the palm oil tree plantation estate management system consists mainly of small land holders.
Presently, there are more than 3.5 million hectares of land in Malaysia which has palm oil cultivation. In the year 2004, Malaysia has produced more than 14 millions tonnes of palm oil. Malaysia currently accounts for 51 % of world palm oil production and 62% of the total global exports. As the biggest producer and exporter of palm oil and palm oil products, Malaysia has an important role to play in fulfilling the growing global need for oils and fats in general. With the current increase on the demand for palm oil, Malaysia is in the right position to take advantage of such opportunity.
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