Tapioca plant to resume production
Tapioca plant to resume production
The major national cassava powder producer, Lao-Indochina Group (LIG) Public Company, will resume production by the end of next month after its tapioca factory halted operations in June.
The factory is in Pakngum district, Vientiane, and employs 300 local staff.
LIG Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Mr Duangdy Phommachanh, said the factory stopped production to service machines, perform general maintenance, install new boilers imported from China and train staff.
“We installed the new boilers because we will now use biogas for our cassava powder production and stop using charcoal,” he said.
By the time the factory restarts production, farmers will be ready to harvest their crops and supply to the factory as per usual.
The factory had warned farmers in advance that they would be stopping production temporarily.
LIG often halts production during the summer months as cassava tends to be of a poorer quality and only yields a small quantity of powder.
Farmers also struggle to harvest cassava due to muddy conditions and transport issues, focusing rather on planting their crops during the wet season.
While the company does not have ta pioca for domestic or foreign markets during this time of year and its employees are sent home, Mr Duangdy said workers' wages are still paid as per usual.
When the pla nt becomes operational, LIG will start to export the powder to China immediately as numerous customers are waiting for orders of the powder product to be filled.
Other factories producing cassava powder domestically and in neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam face similar problems at this time of the year.
At present, farms in Vientiane's Xaythany, Hadxaifong, Naxaithong and Pakngum districts, as well as further afield in Vientiane, Xieng Khuang and Borikhamxay provinces, supply cassava to the LIG factory.
The company has 13,500 hectares of cassava under cultivation, farmed by 4,800 families in 271 villages across 14 districts.
It expects to expand its cassava farmland to cover more than 20,000 hectares in the near future.
About 90 percent of LIG's factory output is exported to China and the rest is sold on the domestic market.
Factories in Laos which produce tapioca are located in Saravan province's Lau-ngam district, Vientiane province's Meun district, and in Champassak province.
Tapioca powder is found in noodles, snack foods and seasonings, and can be used in the production of clothes, glue, paint, paper, medicine, false teeth and prosthetic limbs.
vientiane times
