OR strives for sustainable future toward OR SDG concept
Sustainable Coffee Sourcing project : Establishment of the first Café Amazon Milling Plant in Mae Wang, Chiangmai, sustainable farming career support
Based on its vision “Empowering All toward Inclusive Growth", PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Co., Ltd. (OR) underlines its unwavering commitment to creating a sustainable future through OR SDG (Small, Diversified and concept) with various projects in parallel with business development.
Recently, OR management team led by CEO Disathat Panyarachun, took part in social development projects in Chiang Mai. OR is undertaking Sustainable Coffee Sourcing project in Baan Samsop and Baan Mae Yangsan in Chiang Mai’s Mae Chaem District as the two pilot areas of the project, which covers 80 rai of land.
The initiative aims to provide a distribution channel of coffee beans for smallholders and enable them to earn more income and enjoy a better quality of life through a fair trade system. The promotion of environmentally sustainable coffee cultivation and production will also help increase the forest areas. The project will enhance the farmers' knowledge and skills to develop coffee cultivation and production that meet sustainability coffee standards. In addition, OR will encourage farmers to participate in the development and become self-reliant.
Located more than 120 kilometres from downtown Chiang Mai, almost all households in Baan Samsop and Baan Mae Yansan were formerly encouraged to grow Arabica beans. Due to distribution problems, the farmers stopped growing coffee and turned to maize, pumpkins, shallots and rice. This resulted in the devastation of the watershed forest and the use of a large quantity of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase crop yields, negatively affecting both the soil and farmers’ health.
OR selected the two communities because their villagers have been ranked as Chiang Mai’s third lowest income earners and with the most burnt forest area in Chiang Mai. The survey also found that they sold coffee beans at more than 40% less than the market price set by merchant middlemen because of the lack of a proper marketplace.
Under the plan, OR will develop the existing coffee farms by educating farmers on how to improve the quality of products and meet the international standards of coffees. Meanwhile, OR will promote coffee cultivation in the new areas by encouraging farmers to shift from some of their other crops to shade-grown coffee farming. Shade-grown coffee simply means that coffee is grown under the shade or canopy of surrounding trees because coffee orchards need shade as protection from high temperatures.
Starting coffee orchards, farmers have to take around 3 years to harvest, thus shade-grown coffee farming practice will help them earn income from shade trees like avocado and macadamia while waiting for coffees, reduce burning forest for shifting cultivation, chemical fertilisers as well as improve environment. OR also encourages farmers to take part in a demonstration pilot model from the downstream to the processing stages.
In addition, OR is supplying materials to build natural sun-dried coffee house and has worked to develop farmers' knowledge and skills in parchment coffee processing in order to create value-added for their beans.
It is expected that this project will empower the Arabica farmers to earn around three times more profit per rai compared to maize, and five times more compared to pumpkin. The project will grow coffee farming in the existing areas and expand the new areas in the long term. The restoration of the watershed and degraded forests as well as the mitigation of forest burning will also serve to reduce PM2.5. Another goal is the development of a sustainable wholesale market to purchase coffee beans from smallholders.
Farmers have to examine the quality of parchment coffee beans before distribution while OR will inspect humidity and defects in green coffee beans to comply with the purchasing standard. The pricing framework will be set in accordance with the market price mechanism and prices will vary depending on the quality of the green beans.
In an effort to promote sustainable farming, OR is cooperating with the Royal Project Foundation and Sarn Palung Social Enterprise Co., Ltd in setting up a Farmers’ Training Institute to enhance farmers' knowledge and skills to produce and process quality coffee.
Support sustainable farming career
The organic farming promotion project has been created with the aim of supporting Thai farmers who would like to switch from chemical-based agricultural farming to organic farming but lack funding and knowledge as well as opportunities to access distribution channels.
OR realises the importance of using plastic to cover greenhouses that provide shade from hot sun in the summer and prevent damage in the rainy season. Greenhouses covered with plastic can help improve the quality of agricultural products and significantly reduce damages.
So far, OR has contributed plastic to farmers in Mae Wang and Samoeng districts to cover 130 greenhouses with a total value of over 400,000 baht.
which supports organic farmers to regularly supply agricultural products of better quality. These initiatives will help farmers to earn a strong and sustainable income.
Besides the promotion of organic farming, OR has installed a solar power system project for organic farming, delivering a solar rooftop worth 360,000 baht to Hak Mae Wang Community Enterprise for its production and processing of organic vegetables and herbs. OR also installed the “Fusion Solar” application to report on the solar cell system in real time, allowing farmers to check power consumption.
The solar power system will help improve farmers' quality of life sustainably and plan cultivation systematically, which is in line with the OR SDG concept.
OR SDG concept
OR is conducting business based on the OR SDG (Small / Diversified / Green) concept, which will enable the company to achieve the long-term goal within a short period. It is in line with the United Nations’ SDG (Sustainable Development Goals), adopted to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
S (Small) is designed to create an opportunity for smallholders and small merchants through OR business operations with the aim of elevating the quality of life and livelihoods of the community.
Café Amazon for Chance has been created to provide opportunities for underprivileged people, the elderly, and veterans and families to work as baristas.
D (Diversified) is to diversify business opportunities via potential platforms to form inclusive partnerships. All types of businesses have a chance to be part of the OR ecosystem and work towards success.
