• What is the oil palm supply chain in Thailand?
  • Oil palm supply chain in Thailand In figure 2, it illustrates the key supply chain of palm oil production in Thailand which comprises smallholder, miller, refinery and Biodiesel plant and consumer. More than 70% of the area planted with oil palms is managed by smallholders with average sizes of 8 ha (Dallinger 2011).
  • How much palm oil is produced in Thailand?
  • The total annual Crude Palm Oil extraction (CPO) was 2.96 million tons (+11.8%), up from 2.65 million tons in 2020. As of 2021, Thailand accounted for 3.8% of the global total Palm Oil production. There are approximately 390,000 Palm Oil farm households across the country. Large farmers tend to invest in their own Crude Palm Oil mills.
  • Are palm oil growers in Thailand sustainable?
  • Most oil-palm growers in Thailand are smallholders who represent approximately 70% of total Thai oil-palm growers (Nupueng, Oosterveer, and Mol 2018 ). In contrast to Malaysia and Indonesia, Thailand has no national certification scheme for the sustainable production of palm oil (Ivancic and Koh 2016 ).
  • Why is Thai palm oil sold on the domestic market?
  • Most Thai palm oil is sold on the domestic market because on the global market CPO produced in Thailand cannot compete with other producing countries where the CPO price is substantially lower.
  • Should oil palm smallholders be able to microfinance in Thailand?
  • While oil palm smallholders account for over 70% of oil palm production in Thailand, they nevertheless lack opportunities to access microfinancing programmes, skills and knowledge about sustainable farming, as well as certification standards, which would enable them to access global markets.
  • How to improve the efficiency of Thai palm oil industry?
  • palm plantations, the low efficiency of the Thai palm oil sector needs to be addressed. This requires steps to be taken at the pol cy level as well as raising the awareness and enhancing the capacities of smallholders. Creating standards for far