Brown Sugar from Oil Palm Trunks

Palm oil has been getting much attention as many products can be generated from oil palm trees. One of the product is brown sugar produced from oil palm tree trunks. Normally, on replanting process, old trees are cut down before being replaced by new trees. This process will result trunks that can be utilized for many purposes. Some people create furniture, handycraft from the trunks. Sometimes, nobody touch them so that they go to waste. In fact, only by following simple process, the unused trunks can produce brown sugars . The production process is quite simple, only by obtaining neera (palm nectar) from the trunks. Azanuddin Kurnia, an officials from Aceh provincial government, confirmed that one oil palm trunk can produce 15 liters neera a day and it remains productive for two or three months, depends on age of the tree. “If it can produce 5 liters neera a day in two months at average, then one trunk will produce 300 liters neera,” Azanuddin said as quoted by Serambinews.com. From 300 liters neera, farmers can produce 60 kg brown sugar or 20 percent of the neera with the sale price Rp10.000 per kg at average. “In two months, farmer can earn Rp600.000 from one trunks. This could be an alternative source of economy for the farmers,” Azanuddin said. ***