Abstract: Methods for predicting palm oil yield of a test oil palm plant are disclosed. The methods comprise determining, from a sample of a test oil palm plant of a population, at least a first SNP genotype, corresponding to a first SNP marker, located in a first candidate gene region for a high-oil-production trait and associated, after stratification and kinship correction, with the high-oil-production trait with a p-value <0.001 in the population or having a linkage disequilibrium r2 value of at least 0.2 with respect to a first other SNP marker that is linked thereto and associated, after stratification and kinship correction, with the high-oil-production trait a p-value <0.001 in the population. The methods also comprise comparing the first SNP genotype to a corresponding first reference SNP genotype and predicting palm oil yield of the test plant based on extent of matching of the SNP genotypes.