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Cassava processor raises crop purchase price
The Lao Indochina Group Tapioca Factory this week raised the price it pays farmers for their cassava crops from 500,000 kip to 600,000 kip per tonne.
Included in the new price is payment for delivery of the raw product, which is processed into cassava powder, from farms to the factory, according to a press release from the company yesterday.
“The new price comes into effect today (October 4),” group Chairman Sengmaly Sengvatthana was quoted as saying in the release.
Mr Sengmaly also said prices paid by the company are often updated depending on fluctuations in the global market.
It is the sixth price adjustment by the company since 2009. It first increased payment to 320,000 kip per tonne, before raising it further to 350,000 kip per tonne in October of 2009 and 400,000 kip per tonne in December. It rose to 450,000 kip per tonne in March last year and 500,000 kip in November.
“The factory now operates a 24-hour system to purchase cassava,” Mr Sengmaly said.
The new price also aims to increase the supply of cassava to the company, which resumed operation of its processing factory in Pakngum district, Vientiane, on Saturday.
There is currently an initial supply of at least 300 tonnes of cassava to the factory each day. Roads in some areas are still flooded or muddy, which makes transport of the crop difficult.
Farmers can harvest their crops and supply the factory with cassava as normal. In the wet season the cassava grown was of poor quality and yielded only a small quantity of powder. Many farms in Vientiane, mostly in the districts of Xaythany, Hadxaifong, Naxaithong and Pakngum, supply cassava to the processing plant.
Ninety percent of the powder produced at the factory is exported to China while the rest is sold locally. The powder is an ingredient in noodles, snack foods and seasonings. It is also used in the production of clothes, glue, paint, paper, medicine, false teeth and prosthetic limbs.
Other factories producing cassava powder in Laos are located in Lau-ngam district in Saravan province and Meun district in Vientiane province and both produce for local and overseas customers.
Another tapioca factory in Champassak province, the KPN Tapioca Factory, will resume production in November.
vientiane times
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