In order to demonstrate the strength and possible weaknesses of the digester-screw press (DSP) system for small-scale oil palm fruit processing, a comparison was made of its performance and that of the erstwhile hand-operated hydraulic extraction system. Indices of evaluation include oil yield and quality, and operational economics. The results indicate that the throughput of the DSP system was four folds of that of the hydraulic system, whilst also operating at higher oil extraction efficiency (89.1%). There was no significant difference between the quality of the palm oil obtained from the two systems. However, the economic analysis of the systems indicates that at throughput of 0.75 t/h and above, the DSP system was more economical than the hydraulic system in terms of equipment, labour, material and floor space requirement and revenue accruing from the processing operation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.