YAC - Palm Nut Oil Soap Production

To my remiss I have not mentioned Liberia's reliance on the Palm Nut. The palm nut grows in clusters on a tree very similar to Palm, Banana or Coconut tree.  Unfortunately, I can’t locate a good link to provide a history or good info, in the future I will past more about Liberia’s love affair with the Palm Nut. For now, I leave you with a link that has Liberian recipes for the use of the very unhealthy palm oil:

Now let me explain the use of palm oil and the production of palm oil soap as taught to students and locals on the YAC farm as a possible livelihood opportunity and a source of income.

The several step process is all done by hand - there are no factory machines here in the processing building.  After the palm nut clusters are removed from the trees they are hacked off the cluster by hand.

The nuts are then cracked opened and the hard black kernels are collected.

The kernels are then placed in a giant press. This press is used by two people walking around the press holding on to a long pole inserted horizontally at the top of the press (not pictured). Unfortunately, these presses cost $750 US and realizing that most villagers earn less than $25 US a month – the cost is quite prohibitive. One of the goals of YAC is to teach villages and their villagers to act as a cooperative, purchasing equipment together and sharing time and use of the equipment.

After the oil is procured, it is placed in a large boiler outside to be sterilized. Unfortunately, I was listening so intently to the processing plant guide that I neglected to photograph this expensive piece of equipment that uses charcoal to heat the oil.

After sterilization the oil is cooled and poured into molds. These large soap molds take but just a few hours to cool.

After cooling the large sheets are cut into strips, the strips can then be cut into small bars and sold on the market. Here at the YAC production facility, the soap is sold in its strip form allowing the purchaser to make bars the size they choose to redistribute and sell, or to use at home.

I learned that on her visit yesterday the President purchased 50 strips, I myself purchased 2. At $150 Liberian per bar that was about a little more than $4US for two strips. Quite a bargain for the very moisturizing qualities of palm oil soap.