PalmPro South Sumatra

Deforestation, environmental damages and disruption to local communities. Palm oil gets bad reviews for these reasons. Zebra approaches the nevertheless promising industry in our own palm oil mill: Palm Pro. The setup allows local, small-scale farmers to unload their crop at better market price and easier. Energy efficient technology further enables a 75 percent (!) decrease in energy use.

South-Sumatra is where Zebra built its own palm oil mill in 2006, as an alternative to conventional oil extraction. The objective: to design a more environmentally sound production process that will also bring better returns to the local community. Together with local partners and funding from the ministry of Economic Affairs, the new extraction plant came to be.

Old situation

Small plantations often run into problems finding enough mill capacity to process produce. About 1,000 tonnes of fruit a day may therefore simply go to waste. Also, small farmers can not complete with major plantations. Their lack of access to the international market makes their margins suffer

Use everything!

Zebra designed a more efficient production process for Palm Pro of sterilization, pressing and processing. This increases capacity for the mill and allows farmers to process 100 percent of harvested fruits. New installations process five/ten tons of fruit per hour, delivering enough capacity to serve twenty plantations. Zebra acts as an international broker on behalf of the farmers, which fetches them a much higher price for the fruit. On top of that, the mill itself is exceptionally energy efficient. waste water is processed to extract biogas, which is funneled back into production. Organic wastes flows are similarly used in co-generation installations, to create energy. Nothing is wasted.