Chapter Two: About the dataset
A real supply chain dataset, and the facts in one row
The data
Trase is a nonprofit initiative that maps the supply chains of commodities linked to deforestation, and publishes the results as open data. This course uses an excerpt of its Indonesian palm oil supply chain dataset:
Benedict, J. J., Biddle, H., Gollnow, F., Heilmayr, R., Mueller, C., Ribeiro, V., & Suavet, C. (2024). Indonesia palm oil supply chain (2018–2022) (Version 1.2) [Data set]. Trase. https://doi.org/10.48650/X83N-7M36. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
One row of the dataset is one trade flow: palm oil grown in a district (a kabupaten), processed at a mill, sometimes refined at a refinery, exported by one company and imported by another into a country of first import.
The excerpt contains:
81 |
trade flows: 71 of refined palm oil and 10 of crude palm oil |
41 |
mills |
6 |
refineries |
37 |
companies, as exporters, importers and parent companies |
6 |
districts of production, all in the province of East Kalimantan |
6 |
EU countries of first import |
5,505 ha |
total 10-year deforestation exposure |
|
How the excerpt was made
|
You can download the excerpt as a CSV file: palm_kaltim_eu_2022_demo.csv.
The columns
| Group | Columns |
|---|---|
Places |
|
Companies and facilities |
|
The flow itself |
|
One row, as elementary facts
Here is one row, transposed, with the numbers rounded:
| Column | Value |
|---|---|
country_of_production |
INDONESIA |
province_of_production |
KALIMANTAN TIMUR |
kabupaten_of_production |
BERAU |
mill |
JABONTARA EKA KARSA (JABON) |
mill_group |
KUALA LUMPUR KEPONG (KLK) |
refinery |
LDC EAST INDONESIA |
refinery_group |
LOUIS DREYFUS |
exporter |
LDC EAST INDONESIA |
exporter_group |
LOUIS DREYFUS |
importer |
LOUIS DREYFUS |
importer_group |
LOUIS DREYFUS |
country_of_first_import |
SPAIN |
product_type |
REFINED PALM OIL |
volume |
3750.036 |
fob |
1311345.23 |
palm_oil_deforestation_10_year_total_exposure |
916.7547 |
Before modeling, let’s list the facts this row states:
-
The kabupaten Berau lies in the province Kalimantan Timur.
-
The province Kalimantan Timur lies in the country Indonesia.
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The mill Jabontara Eka Karsa belongs to the group Kuala Lumpur Kepong.
-
The refinery LDC East Indonesia belongs to the group Louis Dreyfus.
-
The exporter LDC East Indonesia belongs to the group Louis Dreyfus.
-
Palm oil from Berau, processed at the mill Jabontara Eka Karsa and refined at the refinery LDC East Indonesia, was exported by LDC East Indonesia and imported by Louis Dreyfus into Spain as refined palm oil.
-
That flow had a volume of 3,750.036 tonnes, a value of 1,311,345.23 US dollars, and a deforestation exposure of 916.7547 hectares.
Most of these facts are binary. The sixth is not: it relates seven things at once, and it cannot be split into binary facts without losing information. Knowing which mill supplied which refinery, and which refinery supplied which exporter, does not tell you which mill’s oil reached which importer. Chapter Five shows what is lost if you try.
Some facts need interpretation.
LDC EAST INDONESIA appears as both the refinery and the exporter, so is it one thing or two?
And NOT REFINED, used in other rows, is not a refinery at all, but the absence of one.
Chapter Four covers these decisions.