London, UK: From the ingredients used in everyday foods to the materials found in candles, soaps and fuels, many familiar products begin with a complex journey between suppliers and manufacturers. Umesh Shankara Gowda, Director of Bio Green Wax Ltd and Bio Greenware and Co-founder of Palm Oil Economics, is working to make that journey easier to understand and manage.
Established in July 2024, Bio Green Wax Ltd has grown beyond oils and waxes into six specialist brands: Bio Green Wax, Bio Green Oils and Fats, Bio Green Chemicals, Bio Green Fuels, Bio Green Foods and Bio Green Oleo. These brands operate under the same company and leadership, supplying materials used in food production, personal care, manufacturing and renewable fuels to customers worldwide through a business network spanning the UK, India, UAE and Indonesia.
Gowda combines international sourcing experience with hands-on technology development to help businesses find suitable products, understand their origins and make better-informed buying decisions. Alongside these activities, Palm Oil Economics provides free information on palm-oil prices, the factors influencing them and possible future price movements, helping buyers and suppliers understand a market that affects many everyday products.
In this exclusive interview, Umesh Gowda discusses his journey, the changing commodity landscape, sustainability, technology and his vision for the future.
Q1. Could you tell us about your professional journey and your role at Bio Green Wax?
Umesh Gowda: My work has always been closely connected with commodity supply chains, particularly oils, fats and waxes. working with suppliers, understanding customers’ needs and helping products reach the right markets. Today, as Director of Bio Green Wax Ltd and Bio Greenware, I work across sourcing, day-to-day operations and business development, connecting our activities in London, Bengaluru and Dubai.
An important part of my role is also developing the technology we use. Being involved in the everyday business helps me understand where better tools can make a difference, whether that means keeping supplier information organised, responding to customers more effectively or making market information easier to understand. We develop our own market-intelligence, automation, CRM and AI systems in-house. drawing on the practical needs of our team and customers.
Q2. What led you to establish Bio Green Wax Ltd?
Umesh Gowda: Through my work in the industry, I saw an opportunity to make the buying process clearer and more informative. A quotation tells a customer the price, but it does not always explain where the product comes from, whether it meets their needs or what is included in the offer. Smaller businesses may also have less access to the market information available to large trading companies.
I wanted to build a business that helped close those gaps. Beyond offering a suitable product at a competitive price, we aim to give customers straightforward answers about quality, packaging, supporting documents and delivery, so they can understand and assess an offer with confidence.
As our range grew, we introduced specialist brands around different customer needs. A bakery and a biofuel producer need different products and information, even when some materials share similar origins.
The same thinking helped shape Palm Oil Economics: making useful market information more accessible. Both ventures reflect the same aim of helping customers understand their options and make better-informed decisions.
Q3. What does Bio Green Wax offer to manufacturers?
Umesh Gowda: We supply a broad range of materials used to make everyday products, from food and personal-care items to candles, industrial goods and renewable fuels. Our offering includes edible oils and specialty fats, natural and industrial waxes, food ingredients, chemicals, and materials used in biofuel production.
Our specialist brands help manufacturers find the products relevant to their industry. For example, a food producer may need an oil or ingredient with particular qualities, while a soap manufacturer may require glycerine or fatty acids. We start by understanding what the customer is making, then discuss the suitable product, quality requirements, packaging and delivery arrangements.
Responsible sourcing and supporting documentation are also important. Where a customer requires certified or traceable materials, we confirm what is available for the specific product, supplier and order. We make clear whether the relevant certification is held by us or a manufacturing partner, rather than suggesting that one certificate covers everything we sell.
Ultimately, our role is to help manufacturers find suitable materials and understand the information behind the offer.
Q4. Traceability is becoming increasingly important. How does Bio Green Wax approach it?
Umesh Gowda: For palm oil, we can offer RSPO SG-certified supply, subject to availability. This means palm oil from certified sources is kept separate from non-certified oil throughout the supply chain.
We also work towards EUDR readiness by gathering relevant origin and supply-chain information. RSPO certification supports this work but does not replace the separate checks required under EUDR.
Across our other products, we connect supplier details with supporting documents and check what applies to each order. Where information needs further verification, we make that clear. Our aim is to give customers confidence through evidence, not blanket claims.
Q5. What is Palm Oil Economics?
Umesh Gowda: Palm oil is the world’s most widely consumed vegetable oil, accounting for roughly one-third of global vegetable-oil consumption. It is a major internationally traded commodity, used in everything from cooking oils and packaged foods to soaps, cosmetics and biofuels.
We created Palm Oil Economics to bring the key information about this global market into one place. It combines price updates, industry news, information from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and other sources, and insights into production, demand, weather and government policies.
The platform is highly automated, with AI helping gather information, prepare market updates and explain developments in accessible language. News articles are reviewed and approved before publication, keeping human oversight over what readers see.
It is designed to support the whole journey, from understanding the market to comparing costs and making a sourcing enquiry. Readers can access practical calculators, explore products and request supplier quotations. We also publish experimental price outlooks and their performance results, making clear that predictions are estimates, not guarantees.
The market information is free. Our aim is to make a complex industry easier to follow and help buyers, suppliers and other interested readers make better-informed decisions.
Q6. Why did you decide to build your technology systems in-house?
Umesh Gowda: Before moving into this business, I spent more than a decade in the software industry, so building technology is both familiar to me and something I genuinely enjoy. AI-assisted coding tools have given me greater freedom to turn ideas into practical solutions and develop systems tailored to our business.
We understand our own day-to-day requirements better than anyone else because we work with them directly. When our team encounters a problem, we can build around that need, test the solution and improve it as the business grows.
For example, our systems connect supplier details and brochures with the products they offer, helping the team find relevant information when a customer makes an enquiry. Our specialist brands also share a common technology foundation, allowing improvements to benefit the wider business.
What I enjoy most is seeing something we have built make everyday work easier. AI helps us develop faster and automate routine tasks, while our team remains responsible for checking important information and making commercial decisions.
Q7. What makes your approach different from traditional commodity businesses?
Umesh Gowda: We are a young company, and that gives us the opportunity to build a modern approach from the beginning. We are bringing together practical sourcing experience, current technology and a strong emphasis on transparency.
For us, that means making useful information easier to access, using AI and automation to support faster responses, and developing tools around what customers actually need. A buyer should be able to explore products, understand the market and discuss a requirement with a team that has the relevant supplier information at hand.
We also want customers to understand who they are dealing with, what an offer includes and which claims are supported by documents. Where something needs further checking, we should say so openly.
Our ambition is to be a responsive, approachable business that keeps improving. Technology helps us do that, but trust is earned through clear communication, reliable service and delivering what we promise.
Q8. What milestones have Bio Green Wax and your wider ventures achieved so far?
Umesh Gowda: The foundations were laid with Bio Greenware Ltd, which started in 2020. That experience helped shape the next stage of our journey. Bio Green Wax Ltd followed in 2024 as a more specialised business, bringing a clearer product focus and a modern approach to reaching and supporting customers.
Since then, we have developed six specialist brands covering hundreds of products. Their dedicated websites make it easier for customers to find information relevant to their industry, supported by our business network across London, Bengaluru, Dubai and Jakarta.
Achieving ISO 9001:2015 certification for our quality management system and becoming an RSPO member were also important steps in strengthening the business.
Another milestone has been launching Palm Oil Economics, making market information and practical tools freely available. Alongside it, we have developed our own systems to connect customer enquiries, products and supplier information.
For me, these milestones represent a progression: Bio Greenware provided the foundation, while Bio Green Wax has built on it with greater specialisation, wider outreach and technology designed around today’s customer needs.
Q9. What challenges did you face while building the business?
Umesh Gowda: One of the biggest challenges has been earning trust as a young company in an industry with long-established businesses. We have had to demonstrate our value through clear communication, useful information and reliable service, rather than expect customers to choose us simply because we offer something new.
As our product range and specialist brands expanded, maintaining consistency became another challenge. Product information, supplier records and customer enquiries all need careful attention. That has reinforced the importance of organised systems and checking that our information remains accurate as the business grows.
Technology has brought its own lessons. Some ideas, particularly around predicting market prices, did not perform as well as we hoped when tested. We have had to be willing to change direction, correct mistakes and be open about limitations.
The experience has taught me that a modern approach is not just about moving quickly or using AI. It is about knowing what to automate, what needs human judgement and when to pause and verify something before asking a customer to rely on it.
Q10. What are your plans for the future?
Umesh Gowda: Our ambition is global. We want to strengthen our presence across international markets by bringing together supply-chain experience, modern technology and a growing network of buyers and suppliers.
Across our specialist brands, we will focus on helping manufacturers find suitable materials and dependable supply partners, while opening new markets for suppliers. That means developing strong local relationships alongside digital tools that make communication, product information and sourcing easier to manage.
We will also continue improving Palm Oil Economics and explore opportunities to bring useful market information and practical tools to other industries.
Over time, we want businesses to think of us as a trusted connection between what they need and where it can be sourced. If we can consistently make international trade clearer, more connected and easier to navigate, we believe we can play a meaningful role in how business-to-business trade develops.
Q11. What message would you like buyers and industry professionals to remember about Bio Green Wax?
Umesh Gowda: We want to be recognised as a trusted partner with both specialist product knowledge and industry expertise across waxes, biofuels, oleochemicals, food ingredients, oils and fats, and industrial chemicals.
Each brand focuses on understanding the industry it serves, including how materials are used, what manufacturers need and which market developments affect their decisions. Our role goes beyond finding a product; it is about helping customers assess their options with a knowledgeable team.
Behind these brands is Bio Green Wax Ltd, connecting sourcing experience, supplier networks and modern technology. We want customers to come to us for informed guidance as well as supply, and to stay with us because we communicate clearly, understand their business and deliver on our commitments.
About Umesh Shankara Gowda
Umesh Shankara Gowda is a Director of Bio Green Wax Ltd and Bio Greenware Ltd, and Co-founder of Palm Oil Economics. With more than a decade of experience in the software industry before entering this business, he combines international sourcing knowledge with hands-on technology development. His work focuses on connecting buyers, suppliers and useful information through practical tools, clear communication and a modern approach to business.
About Bio Green Wax Ltd
Established in July 2024 and headquartered in London, Bio Green Wax Ltd builds on the foundations developed through Bio Greenware Ltd, which began in 2020. The company brings together specialist product knowledge and industry expertise across waxes, oils and fats, chemicals, biofuel feedstocks, food ingredients and oleochemicals.
Its six brands are Bio Green Wax, Bio Green Oils and Fats (https://biogreenoilsfats.com), Bio Green Chemicals, Bio Green Fuels (https://biogreenfuels.com), Bio Green Foods (https://biogreenfoods.com) and Bio Green Oleo (https://biogreenoleo.com). Each serves distinct customer needs under the same company and leadership.
Supported by a business network spanning the UK, India, UAE and Indonesia, the company connects manufacturers worldwide with suitable materials and supply partners, placing emphasis on product understanding, responsible sourcing and dependable service.
About Palm Oil Economics
Co-founded by Umesh Shankara Gowda and Hantash Najam, Palm Oil Economics is a free market-information and sourcing platform. It brings together palm-oil prices, industry news, information from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and other sources, and practical tools for comparing costs.
AI and automation support the platform’s operations, with human review and approval of news before publication. Experimental price outlooks and a public performance scorecard help readers examine its predictions, while sourcing enquiries connect market understanding with commercial discussions.