A cost-effective loose fruit collection system is still one of the main targets of oil palm industry. Various inventions have been introduced but the objective has not been met due to the various technical limitations and constraints. Therefore, collection of loose fruits by raking is still being practiced, with a high percentage of debris. The debris content in raking activity can be as high as 60% by weight (Ahmad et al., 1995). The introduction of loose fruits separator machine was reported by Amirshah and Hoong (2003), where high percentage of debris in loose fruits that were collected using raking method has been reduced to an acceptable level. In their study, the loose fruits were collected using raking method as this method of gathering fruits offer the best option in terms of speed, particularly during periods of extended harvesting rounds due to labour shortage. The reasons for having clean loose fruits before sending it to the mill is to have a higher oil extraction rate (OER). The large amount of trash will affect the mill productivity, as trash will absorb the oil hence resulting in the reduction of OER. There are also certain mills that penalise the estate if they keep sending large amount of trash (together with loose fruits) to them.

Main Research: Abd Rahim Shuib