This article that appeared in the Engineering Bulletin No. 70 has summarised the gist of the dilemma faced by palm oil millers from day one the modern palm oil mills made their debut in Malaysia or for that matter anywhere in the world. The refusal of some planters to accept the reality of where the mill oil is coming from, the national oil extraction rate (OER) will remain low. It is absolutely pointless to expect the fruit bunches to create more oil than what it contains. As far as oil synthesis is concerned, the moment a bunch is harvested, it cannot produce any more oil. Despite the oil palm planters having this knowledge, they still continue to point their fingers at the mill and put the blame on them when the mill OER drops. If we are sincere in our efforts under the National Key Economic Area (NKEA) to increase our national OER, the focus has to shift from the mill to the estate. This article is republished so that the industry can use the information to increase the national OER. The millers are kindly requested to convey the information to all the contributing estates.