By Jantima Kulkit & Apiradee Treerutkuarkul Photos by: SPOPP-CLIMA Project
Tibet Chantawong, Chief Executive Officer of Phattra Palm Oil Group Public Company Limited, reminisced his childhood when his father took him to a local palm oil milling plant surrounded by the lush green oil palm plantation, as far as his eyes could see. Locals drove pick-up trucks fully loaded with palm fruits for selling. At that time, he was not aware of oil palm and palm oil benefits apart from frying eggs as his breakfast.
His childhood memory of oil palm plantation may fade as time goes by. However his bond with local oil palm communities has become a lifelong asset that grooms him to become a new generation of oil palm entrepreneur and chairman of Krabi Provincial Federation of Thai Industries. For eight years He has been not only running the palm oil mill, but also driving the principle of sustainable oil palm and palm oil production and processing into practice.
Palm oil is a significant economic crop for many countries including Thailand. In the past, the rapid growth of palm oil production without social and environmental responsibility has caused significant negative impacts on economic, environment and society. These included biodiversity loss and the encroachment of forests, peatlands, and wetlands. The irrational use of chemicals could lead to water contamination, land conflicts and illegal labour smuggling. A shift towards sustainable palm oil and oil palm production and processing, from upstream production to downstream processing, is urgently needed.
During COVID-19, Dr Thibet saw an opportunity to utilise his industrial engineering skills and IT passion by participating into the Sustainable Palm Oil Production and Procurement on Climate Mitigation and Action (SPOPP) project in year 2021 and introducing sustainable energy innovation at the family’s palm oil mill.
“Decision making to change helps create opportunities for sustainable oil palm and palm oil value chain. We’ve learned a lot from GIZ experts. Our mill staff are equipped with skills, expertise, strength and confidence to pass on knowledge learned during capacity building trainings to oil palm smallholders and work together to co-create sustainable oil palm and palm oil production and processing,” he said.
When the Sustainable Palm Oil Production and Procurement on Climate Mitigation and Action project: SPOPP CLIMA was launched in year 2024, he was not hesitated to continue participating in the project to upscale the palm oil milling process.
The second generation of Phattara Palm Oil Group believes participating into the SPOPP CLIMA project members will enable the member to upscale sustainability of oil palm smallholders. Phattara Palm Oil Group has been certified “Carbon Footprint for Organisation” (CFO), showcasing the business attention to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emission throughout the value chain while developing waste and wastewater management mechanism to minimise environmental impact following the circular economy.
Dr Thibet believed in the feasibility of artificial intelligence (AI) and data collection promoted by SPOPP CLIMA project. The mechanism is related to the Bio-Circular-Green Economy and will enhance capacity of oil palm smallholders and oil mill supply chain to sustainably reduce GHG emission at domestic and international levels in the long term.
“All levels of the supply chain, from the oil palm smallholders to cooperatives, oil millers to the upstream purchaser and consumers need to be developed towards climate-resilient, sustainable oil palm and palm oil production and processing at all levels of the supply chain.”
The objective of SPOPP CLIMA is to serve as a model for oil palm smallholders and enable them to implement low-carbon oil palm management in Thailand.
Undeniably, carbon emission from agricultural activities affects weather atmosphere. Farmers themselves are also facing challenges of climate change, and increasingly severe and more frequent climate impacts including floods, droughts. Supporting the oil palm smallholders to become resilient and climate smart is urgent to mitigate climate impacts on their productivity and livelihood.
Global Green Chemicals Public Company Limited (GGC) is a leading company committed to achieving carbon neutrality. As part of this commitment, GGC has initiated a project in collaboration with farmers to reduce carbon emissions at the very beginning of the supply chain. The SPOPP CLIMA project, which was officially launched in August 2024 with funding from GGC, implementation by GIZ, and collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, is a continuation of the successful RSPO certification of smallholder farmers under the SPOPP project. This new project focuses on empowering smallholder farmers with the knowledge and tools to calculate the carbon footprint of fresh fruit bunches and implement low-carbon farming practices. Reducing the carbon footprint not only helps mitigate climate change but also enhances the sustainability of the palm oil industry and improves the global image of Thai palm oil products.
Saravorn as the second generation of is positive that oil mills can be a part of the overall GHG emission reduction effort and support entrepreneurs to become climate resilience. Farmer members of the SPOPP CLIMA project play a key role in climate resilient by practicing rational use of fertilisers, increasing soil organics, carbon storage and promoting diversified cropping for sustainability throughout the supply chain.
“Supporting everyone to become resilience for handling climate change impact is the key to sustainable oil palm and palm oil production, from the upstream of oil palm smallholders to the downstream of oil palm millers are the key mechanism to drive, should have proper trainings and capacity buliding to ensure that they can adapt in time of changes,” he said.
As academic manager, he established the RSPO standard department in year 2021 with an aim to ensure that farmer smallholders supplying oil palm to the mill will be RSPO certified. Administrating human resources at the mill and farmers and introducing data collection is as challenging as facing strict audit. He also learned that respect was much required when working with communities, and locals to ensure successful promotion of environmental conservation following the RSPO standard.
Currently there are six groups of RSPO-certified oil palm smallholders under the mill supervision and aim to develop skills on carbon emission reduction and sustainable oil palm and palm oil production and processing during and after completion of project implementation.
SPOPP CLIMA will conduct data collection and processing by using carbon footprint calculation tools, while developing a curriculum on “low-carbon emission oil palm management” as capacity training tool for millers, and oil palm smallholders to become trainers. Model farming is also established so that project members can learn practical lessons about pre and post measurement of carbon emission from palm fruits.■
