Lao coffee growers reap bitter harvest after prices plummet
Lao coffee growers reap bitter harvest after prices plummet
Lao coffee growers look likely to suffer losses from this year's harvest after coffee prices plummeted on the world market.
The coffee price has fallen to half of what it was last year, coordinator for the Secretary of the Lao Coffee Board, Mr Khambone Phasouk, told Vientiane Times yesterday.
Last year, coffee sold for about US$5,000 per tonne but this year the price has slumped to US$2,000-US$3,000, he said.
Coffee remains Laos' top agricultural export, however. Growers are now starting to harvest this year's crop and will sell it to traders from the beginning of next year.
Laos exported almost 20, 000 tonnes of coffee last year. The volume is expected to increase this year while more coffee products are finding their way on to the domestic market, according to the Agriculture Department.
Most of the crop is exported in the form of dried coffee to Taiwan, Italy, Japan, Spain, Poland, Germany, the US, France, Belgium, Sweden, Thailand and Vietnam.
Most coffee grower s live in the southern provinces, with about 45,000 hectares under cultivation in Champassak, yielding 25,000 tonnes a year, said Mr Khambone.
Revenue earned from the export of coffee is making a valuable contribution to socio-economic development, and helping to improving the living conditions of local farming families.
Lao coffee is organically farmed and renowned for its fine flavour, and has gained in popularity with connoisseurs. The temperate climate and soil quality on the Bolaven Plateau where most coffee is grown makes it suitable for cultivation of the crop, Mr Khambone said.
Laos also exports maize, rice, cassava, tea, bananas, Job's tear, soybeans, sesame, sugarcane and cardamom.
Average annual exports of agricultural and non-timber products, including coffee, maize, rice and cassava, are worth about US$218 million, while other crops are sold in informal border trade.
Maize is the crop pulling in the second highest income, at US$55 million last year, followed by rice (including paddy and polished rice) at about US$10 million, and cassava, which earned about US$40,000 last year.
Most of these products were sold to Vietnam, Thailand and China as well as to traders in Vientiane.
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce reported that the value of imports and exports climbed to more than 35.3 trillion kip (US$4.52 billion) in the first six months of this year, 5.36 percent more than in the same period last year when the figure was about US$4.29 billion.
The ministry's Import and Export Department reported recently that the US$4.52 billion figure included exports worth over US$1.53 billion - a 4.14 percent increase over the same period last year.
The export value rose due to larger exports of minerals, electricity and wood products. Thailand was Laos' main export market followed by China, Vietnam, Japan and India.
vientiane times
