Blockchain technology to ensure fairness in trading of crude palm oil

It expects to test the system by June.
Nantika Thangsupanich, DOEB director general, said on Friday (May 15) that the department has talked to producers of pure palm oil (B100) as well as oil refineries and traders about using blockchain technology in crude palm-oil trading.
“The operators are ready to cooperate because it will ensure fairness,” she said. “However, they want about two weeks to study the technology and conduct a trial run before reporting to the department in the next meeting.”
She said the blockchain system will cover the entire crude palm-oil supply chain, starting from oil-palm farmers and B100 factories to refineries and traders.
“We will test the system on some B100 factories in June before expanding to other factories,” she said.
She added that this system has a clear pricing criterion, for instance if one litre of palm oil is priced at Bt32, then the price of crude oil must be Bt18 per kilogram and the price of palm fruit is set at Bt3.05 per kilo.
As of May 13, the price of B100 was Bt24.87 per litre, crude palm oil was Bt20.25-Bt20.75 per kg, while palm fruit was Bt2.50-Bt3.20 per kg.
“If the system proves to be successful, the department may ask oil traders to only by B100 through the blockchain system to ensure fairness for all parties,” she said, adding that the system will be developed locally.
Meanwhile, the Energy Policy and Planning Office said the price of biodiesel was still under pressure as the production is exceeding consumption because few vehicles are plying the roads.