The Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC) plans to develop an e-commerce platform for online distribution using blockchain technology for transparency and fairness, says Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat.
He said many crops in Thailand are produced for export, but most of the profit goes to vendors, while farmers incur losses when selling their harvests.
Mr Julapun said the initiative aims to create a fair profit-sharing system between farmers and vendors.
If the system is successful, it should reduce farmers' losses as a result of better control of production, he said.
The pilot agricultural product on the platform is coffee, as Thailand is a leading coffee producer.
BAAC said it promotes high-value agriculture by encouraging the use of technology and innovation to improve productivity and product quality, aiming to meet global standards while improving Thai competitiveness in the global market.
The bank also supports local agro-tourism.
BAAC said it strives to be a sustainable rural development bank by supporting farmers in all aspects, including production, adding value to products, and marketing support, elevating farming income to the level of urban occupations.
The bank also aims to build farmers' skills to improve their quality of life.
In a related development, BAAC established an Office of Foreign Affairs to raise the productivity and connectivity of Thai farmers to a global level, including the export of products in cooperation with the Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC) through business-matching activities.
BAAC also provides customers of ADBC with direct access to raw material sources and production at fair prices from upstream producers.