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“Manioc war” breaks out
About 90 percent of Vietnam’s manioc is exported to China. This reliance on the Chinese market is too heavy, as Vietnamese companies incur losses when Chinese importers try to force the prices down.
Sugar refineries in Tay Ninh and Dong Nai province and the central region complain that the area for growing sugar cane has dropped by tens of thousands of hectares. Farmers have shifted to growing manioc for domestic starch and alcohol producers. Also, Chinese merchants are scrambling to collect manioc.
Animal feed production companies previously reported that manioc made up 30-40 percent of animal feed. Now they must use other materials because manioc prices have risen too rapidly and the supply has become short.
Chung Kim, Director of Kim Long Breeding and Animal Feed Company in Binh Duong province, revealed that a kilogram of sliced manioc sold at 2000 dong previously, but now sells at 4800 dong.
Pham Duc Binh, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Animal Feed Association, has confirmed that animal feed producers cannot use manioc because its price has soared. They now use rice bran to save money.
Explaining the manioc price increases, analysts cite how many alcohol factories in Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc, Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai will need a large volume of manioc when they open. Besides, starch and seasoning powder factories also use big volumes of manioc for processing. A lot of factories can only get 50 percent of their manioc demand.
The situation has become more serious recently. Chinese merchants are also hunting for manioc in Vietnam. Previously, only high-quality, dried manioc could be sold abroad, while domestic merchants could collect all kinds of manioc. Now Chinese alcohol factories have been set up at the border to use materials from Vietnam.
Since the supply became short, merchants persuade farmers to sell crops before harvest at 30-40 million dong per hectare. Now, high-quality manioc can be sold at 60-80 million dong.
Statistics show that every year, China needs up to six million tons of ethanol, but can grow only 1.2 million tons. In recent times, it imported five million tons per year, mostly from Vietnam and Thailand, to provide materials for 150 factories.
At a HCM City workshop in early September, a Ministry of Industry and Trade official confirmed that 90 percent of Vietnam’s manioc is exported to China.
Despite the shortage, Vietnamese exporters sometimes still incur losses when importers try to force the prices down. At first, they push the prices up to attract Vietnamese merchants to the border. Later, when the manioc has been transported to the border gates, Chinese merchants try to force prices down. In this case, Vietnamese sellers have no choice but to sell manioc at low prices, because they do not want to spend more money to carry the manioc back.
Le Xuan Duong, Director of the Export Support Centre under the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, noted that, in recent years, manioc has become valuable. A lot of countries are seeking sliced manioc and starch to make ethanol, industrial alcohol, and to process food and animal feed. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is planning to add manioc to the list of key farm produce export items.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are 500,000 hectares of manioc grown nationwide, providing 8.6 million tons every year.
vietnamnet, NLD
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