COMPARISON OF 2023 PRODUCTION COSTS BETWEEN HYBRID OxG AND Elaeis guineensis CROPS IN COLOMBIA

The area planted with Elaeis oleifera x Elaeis guineensis hybrids (OxG hybrids) crops in Colombia is on the rise and nowadays more than 90 000 ha (10% of the cultivated area in Colombia) are currently planted with them.Today, after 15 years of commercial operations of OxG hybrids, there is a set of management practices that includes artificial pollination, harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by implementing appropriate ripeness criteria for each type of OxG cultivar, adjustments to OxG nutrition programs and adjustments to the oil extraction process from OxG FFB.This set of OxG crop management practices is the result of years of research by CENIPALMA and, technological adoption by Colombian companies that have pioneered the planting of OxG hybrid cultivars.The adoption of OxG crop management practices has led to the production of an average of 30 t FFB/ha in mature crops, which is higher than FFB production obtained in E. guineensis crops.The results of this analysis allow us to conclude that the OxG hybrid business is currently viable with a unit cost of production of USD102.22/t of FFB [and USD507.90/t of crude palm oil (CPO)], very close to that obtained in E. guineensis cultivars of USD107.65/t of FFB (and USD510.03/t of CPO).Our analyses also yield that cropping OxG hybrid oil palms is a better economic alternative than cropping E. guineensis oil palms.Presenting results on the estimation of unit costs for OxG crops is relevant because the palm oil agri-business from OxG hybrids is a relatively recent development.