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Lao organic sunflower seeds bound for Japan
Pakxong Organic Farm in Champassak province is set to export about 1,000 tonnes of chemical-free sunflower seeds to Japan early next year, to be processed into oil.
The site of the 500 hectare organic farm which grows crops for both the local and export markets.
“We will start harvesting the seeds and exporting them in January,” the farm's owner Ms Inpeng Samuntee said yesterday.
Currently Ms Inpeng is planting the seeds on 300 hectares of a coffee plantation, which will take about 20 days. Then it will take another 60 days before the crop can be harvested.
Each hectare will yield about 12 tonnes of sunflower seeds and “the Japanese buyer will take all we can produce as there is an unlimited demand,” she said.
Ms Inpeng has been exporting sunflower seeds to Japan for 3 to 4 years. She had previously grown the seeds in Thailand before exporting them to Japan.
“I provided Thai farmers with the seeds and they planted out about 100 hectares, and I purchased the entire crop,” she said.
Now that she has learnt how to farm the seeds herself she is growing them locally. “This is the first time I have grown sunflower seeds,” she said. She also believes that growing the crop in Laos will improve the yield by about 5 to 10 percent because “we have richer soil and land”.
Sunflowers are easy to grow and the farming method is similar to that used for maize or upland rice, Ms Inpeng said.
The 500 hectare organic farm also grows bananas, pineapples, cabbages, asparagus, peppers, lettuces, onions, carrots, radishes, zucchini, potatoes, ginger, chayote, tamarind, coffee and tea.
The farm normally exports around 200kg of vegetables to the Middle East each week, at a cost of US$8 to US$10 per kilo. However, the Middle Eastern buyer wants to import 370 tonnes of fruit and vegetables per year from the farm.
The crops must be grown on site at the farm because the buyers send inspectors to see how the crops are grown and ensure they are chemical-free. The farm hopes to export 3 tonnes of fruit and vegetables per day to Europe in the future, including tomatoes, chilli, lettuces, ginger, bananas and pineapples.
It has sent sample products to an EU import group in Germany for quality testing and the two groups are set to ink an agreement when the farm is ready. The farm has already received organic certification from the Halal Food Group, an international organisation that carries out product testing and soil and water analysis before buying Halal products for supply to the Middle East.
The farm also has grass fields where cattle graze. The animals are reared for their meat and also for the manure they produce, which is used for vegetable cultivation. The farm uses fertiliser made from animal dung, rice straw, waste vegetables and rice husks.
vientiane times
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