HARVESTING

        Proper and timely harvesting of fruit bunches is an important operation which determines the quality of oil to a great extent. The yield is expressed as fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in kg per hectare per year or as oil per hectare per year. The bunches usually ripen in six months after anthesis. Unripe fruits contain high water and carbohydrate and very little oil. As the fruit ripens oil content increase to 80 - 85% in mesocarp. Over ripe fruit contains more free fatty acids (FFA) due to decomposition and thus increases the acidity. Usually the ripe fruits, attached to the bunches contain 0.2 to 0.9% FFA and when it comes out of extraction plant the FFA content is above 3%.Ripeness of the fruit is determined by the degree of detachment of the fruit from bunches, change in colour and change in texture of the fruit. Ripening of fruits start from top downwards, nigrescens fruits turning reddish orange and the virescens (green) to reddish brown. Fruits also get detached from tip downward in 11 - 20 days time. Ripeness is faster in young palms than in older palms for the bunches of equal weight. The criteria used in determining the degree of ripeness based on the fruit detachment are as follows:

a)	fallen fruits: 10 detached or easily removable fruits for young palms and 5 for adult palms,
b)	number of fruits detached after the bunch is cut; 5 or more fruits/kg of bunch weight,
c)	quantity of detachment per bunch; fruit detachment on 25% of visible surface of bunch.

These criteria could be applied with flexibility.

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