Datetime: 2023-09-01 03:06:14 Visit: 0
Recently, a military coup broke out in the African country Gabon. The coup in Gabon is the eighth coup in West and Cental Africa in the past three years. Since 2020, coups have occurred in Mali, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Mali and Burkina Faso have experienced two coups. If this "coup" comes true, Gabon will become another West and Cental Africa country to be taken over by members of the military after Niger.
According to reports, Gabon is located on the west coast of central Africa. It was once a French colony and declared independent in 1960. Gabon is rich in natural resources and is a major producer of oil, manganese ore and timber in Africa. The output of manganese ore ranks fourth in the world after South Africa, Australia and China, and its export volume ranks third in the world. However, the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in Gabon is very slow, and the food, meat, vegetables, eggs, and fruits cannot be self-sufficient. At present, 60% of Gabon's food needs to be imported from abroad, and the total value of imported food reaches 250 billion CFA francs (about 500 million US dollars) every year. The main local agricultural products are cassava, plantain, corn, yam, taro, cocoa, coffee, vegetables, rubber, palm oil and so on.
Palm oil is one of Gabon's important agricultural products and one of its main export commodities. Plantings are mainly concentrated in coastal areas such as Libreville and Port Ogo. The Gabonese government promotes agricultural and economic development by encouraging palm oil plantation and oil processing. According to statistics, Gabon's palm oil output in 2020 was 70,300 tons, and its output in 2021 was 107,336 tons, a year-on-year increase of 52.6%. However, palm oil exports in 2021 accounted for only 1.2% of the total annual exports. The main export destination countries are Cameroon, Nigeria and Spain etc.The Gabonese government plans to produce 129,312 tons of palm oil in 2024. At present, the main producer is Olam Palm Gabon, a subsidiary of Singapore Olam Group.
The pressing process of palm oil can be divided into the following main steps:
1.Picking and Washing: Ripe palm fruit are picked from the tree and washed to remove surface impurities.
2.Peeling: Peel the picked palm fruits and remove the outer layer of peel.
3.Crushing and separation: The peeled palm fruit is sent to the crusher for crushing and separation to separate the pulp from the core.
4.Pressing: The separated pulp is sent to the palm oil press, which uses pressure to separate the oil from the pulp. Common pressing methods include hydraulic pressing and mechanical pressing.
5.Filtration: The mixture obtained after pressing contains palm oil and a certain amount of impurities and water. This mixture undergoes a sedimentation and separation process to separate the palm oil from impurities and moisture. Commonly used separation methods include centrifugation and precipitation.
6.Refining: The separated virgin palm oil usually also contains impurities and impurities. Therefore, refining is required to remove impurities and improve the quality and stability of the oil. This step includes deacidification, deodorization, decolorization and other processes.
