Russia-Ukraine war increases oil palm prices in Uganda
A farmer loads his oil palm fruits for delivery at the factory. PHOTO/SHABIBAH NAKIRIGYA
What you need to know:
- Government through the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) is expanding growing of the oil palm to other areas of the country in order to meet the current national palm oil demand which requires growing 100,000ha of the crop.
Oil palm farmers in Kalangala District are reaping huge profits this month from the sale of their fresh fruit bunches (FFB).
A kilogramme of FFB of oil palm is now going for Shs1,238 compared to last month which was at Shs1,137. The current price reflects a 166 percent increment from Shs465 in September 2019.
High demand
David Balironda Mukasa, the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT) general manager says the increase in price is attributed to huge demand of palm oil on the international market caused by the impacts of the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.
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Ukraine and Russia were reportedly the leading exporters of sunflower oil which has now been replaced by palm oil.
An article published on Reuters titled “Palm oil becomes costliest vegetable oil as Ukraine war halts sun oil supply,” states that: “Palm oil has become the costliest among the four major edible oils for the first time as buyers rush to secure replacements for sunflower oil shipments from the top exporting Black Sea region that were disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Limited supply
It adds that: “Since ports in Ukraine will remain closed until the invasion ends, Asian and European refiners have raised palm oil purchases for near-month shipments to replace sun oil which has lifted palm oil to irrational price level.”
Now due to the high demand of palm oil on the international market, Malaysia, one of the largest exporters of palm oil has restricted the export of palm oil as it is now reserved for the country’s use.
Balironda explains that when countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia register a high demand of palm oil, prices on the international market increase which also affects the price of fresh fruit bunches in Uganda.
“The international price of crude palm oil is one of the factors used to determine the price of the fresh fruit bunches. Each month, Uganda derives the price for FFB from the pricing formula which includes the international price of crude palm oil and the extraction rate per tonne among others,” he explained.
Advantage to our farmers
Balironda says the continuous increase in prices is an advantage to the farmers which has now fuelled the demand of oil palm seedlings.
“Unfortunately we have reached the expansion limit in Kalangala. We encourage those who want to grow oil palm to take advantage of the projects government is starting in other areas,” he says.
Government through the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) is expanding growing of the oil palm to other areas of the country in order to meet the current national palm oil demand in Uganda which requires growing 100,000ha of oil palm. The new project areas include; Buvuma, Mayuge, Greater Masaka, and Greater Mukono.
Planting
Get the high yield seed from NOPP or any other places you can find it and make it germinate. If you do not take care of the seeds, it will take several years before they germinate. To make it germinate fast, the seeds are kept in a very hot room. This makes the seeds to germinate in about 90 to 100 days.
When the seeds are germinated, you transfer them into small plastic container with black loam manured oil. They will grow new leaf every month. The young seedlings will stays in the container for four to five months.
When the seedling begins to bring out new leaf with two points (bifid leaf) you start transplanting to the nursery. The seedlings will stay in the nursery for one year. By that time, they will have about 15 green leaves.
Then you finally transplant them into your prepared farm land. The overall period it will take before the seedlings are transplanted into the farm is 15 to 17 months old.
Your palm needs to be planted preferably at the rainy season when it will have enough water in the soil for sustaining the young palm.
Plant with proper spacing, taking into cognisance grown period when the palm frond will be spread all over the place.
Spacing
It is important to plant at the right density, the spacing in the above quotation is considered low density and low density oil palm does not produce well. Therefore, to be sure of the right density before planting, you must peg out the area properly.
The distance must be the same between rows and in each row should also be the same distance between oil palms.
If the oil palms are planted too close together, the roots get in each other’s way, and the leaves do not have enough air and sun: the yield will be low. If the oil palms are not planted close enough together, each separate tree produces much, but the roots do not use all the soil.
Prices up
A kilogramme of FFB of oil palm is now going for Shs1,238 compared to last month which was at Shs1,137. The current price reflects a 166 percent increment from Shs465 in September 2019.
