Tencent tech to help verify Thai durians, launch commerce platform

Narumon Pinyosinwat met a Tencent executive from Hong Kong, as well as an executive of Shanghai East Best Foreign Trade (SEBFT), a major durian importer from China.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Narumon said SEBFT has signed a contract to buy 3,000 containers of durians from Thailand for 10 billion baht, with the first 400 containers to be shipped to China next month.

She said the stem of each durian would be embedded with an invisible QR code for authenticating their source.

Tencent is to provide a blockchain system for authenticating the Thai durians, to enable buyers to scan the invisible QR code with their smartphones.

Researchers have developed inks that only fluoresce under certain light wavelengths, such as infrared. This would ensure the QR code was invisible to the naked eye but readable by a smartphone camera with a special filter or an infrared camera.

“This technology will boost the confidence of Chinese buyers that they are getting high-quality fruits from Thailand,” Narumon said. “It will prevent anyone from disguising products from other countries as Thai fruits.”

Narumon said the Commerce Ministry also sought help from Tencent to build an online platform that would allow Thai vendors to sell products to buyers in China through a virtual door-to-door process, increasing the convenience for Thai vendors.

Narumon said the new e-commerce platform was now in trial and would be in service in about 45 days.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Shenzhen, Tencent is well-known for the messaging app WeChat, which gives Chinese users a platform that has been compared to a combination of Facebook, WhatsApp and Paypal all in one.