Loose Fruit Collector Machine in Malaysia: A Review

Malaysia is the world’s second largest producer of palm oil after Indonesia. There are six main processes in most commercial palm oil production. In harvesting, the collection of loose fruit is an important process because the loose fruit contain the highest percentage of oil compared to fresh fruit bunch. Thus, the loose fruit collection process needs to be taken into consideration. In order to properly manage the collection of clean loose fruit, there is a need for a loose fruit-collecting machine that can collect the loose fruit efficiently. In this paper, a loose fruit collecting machine and roller type oil palm loose fruit picker in Malaysia are reviewed and the advantages and disadvantages of these two machines categories are discussed. These two machines could provide significant advantages to the industry by increasing productivity through the efficient collection of loose fruit.   Keywords: Oil palm, loose fruit, fresh fruit bunch