DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF COMMODITIES

• OIL-BEARING CROPS AND DERIVED PRODUCTS (Note)
• SOYBEANS
• GROUNDNUTS IN SHELL
• COCONUTS
• [OIL PALM FRUIT]
• OLIVES
• KARITE NUTS
• CASTOR BEANS
• SUNFLOWER SEED
• RAPESEED
• TUNG NUTS
• SAFFLOWER SEED
• SESAME SEED
• MUSTARD SEED
• POPPY SEED
• MELONSEED
• [TALLOWTREE SEEDS]
• [KAPOK FRUIT]
• [SEED COTTON]
• LINSEED
• HEMPSEED
• OILSEEDS NES

OIL-BEARING CROPS OR OIL CROPS include both annual (usually called oilseeds) and perennial plants whose seeds, fruits or mesocarp and nuts are valued mainly for the edible or industrial oils that are extracted from them. Dessert and table nuts, although rich in oil, are listed under Nuts (see Chapter .). Annual oilseed plants tha are either harvested green or are used for grazing and for green manure are included with Fodder Crops (see Chapter 11.).

Some of the crops included in this chapter are also fibre crops in that both the seeds and the fibres are harvested from the same plant. Such crops include: coconuts, yielding coir from the mesocarp; kapok fruit; seed cotton; linseed; and hempseed.

In the case of several other crops, both the pulp of the fruit and the kernels are used for oil. The main crops of this type are oil-palm fruit and tallow tree seeds.

Production data are reported in terms of dry products as marketed. Exceptions to this general rule include: groundnuts, which are reported as groundnuts in the shell; coconuts, which are reported on the basis of the weight of the nut including the woody shell, but excluding the fibrous outer husk; and palm oil, which is reported in terms of oil, by weight.

Because of the very different nature of the various oil crops, the primary products cannot be aggregated in their natural weight to obtain total oil crops. For this reason, FAO converts the crops to either an oil equivalent or an oilcake equivalent before aggregating them.

Only 5-6 percent of the world production of oil crops is used for seed (oilseeds) and animal feed, while about 8 percent is used for food. The remaining 86 percent is processed into oil.

The fat content of oil crops varies widely. Fat content ranges from as low as 10-15 percent of the weight of coconuts to over 50 percent of the weight of sesame seeds and palm kernels. Carbohydrates, mainly polysaccharides, range from 15 to 30 percent in the oilseeds, but are generally lower in other oil-bearing crops. The protein content is very high in soybeans, at up to 40 percent, but is much lower in many other oilseeds, at 15-25 percent, and is lower still in some other oil-bearing crops.

FAO lists 21 primary oil crops. The code and name of each crop appears in the list that follows, along with its botanical name, or names, and a short description where necessary.

PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM OIL CROPS. Edible processed products from oil crops, other than oil, include flour, flakes or grits, groundnut preparations (butter, salted nuts, candy), preserved olives, desiccated coconut and fermented and non-fermented soya products.