Thai import freeze hurts Xayaboury corn farmers
Thai import freeze hurts Xayaboury corn farmers
The government is struggling to find a market for Lao corn, particularly that grown in Xayaboury province, now that neighbouring Thailand has imposed stricter import regulations.
Xayaboury province is one of the country's corn production centres but is now not permitted to export produce to Thailand until the beginning of March, under the Thai rule.
The corn harvest season finished in October, meaning farmers will be forced to hold on to their corn for five months before they can sell it. By that time, the quality of the crop will have degraded after having been kept in storage too long.
The rule was imposed to protect local Thai farmers, according to Mr Dadsadachanh Xayaphet, a senior official from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce's Foreign Trade Policy Department.
Mr Dadsadachanh made the comment at an annual meeting on Monday in Vientiane organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the activities Laos has carried out in the past year to prepare for Asean integration, ahead of the arrival of the Asean Economic Community in 2015.
He said the Lao government had attempted to work with Thai authorities to find an alternative solution but the “issue has still been unaddressed”.
Foreign Trade Policy Department Deputy Director General, Mr Phan Vilaysom, told Vientiane Times yesterday officials in charge would continue negotiations with Thailand in an effort to have corn exports permitted again earlier.
The government has also been promoting businesses investing in corn processing, including those building factories to dry the crops and constructing storage warehouses.
Such promotion has proved successful in the northern provinces, including in Xieng Khuang where Vietnamese investors have built drying factories so as to e xport the dri ed crops to Vietnam.
Mr Phan said the issue was only affecting Xayaboury province and corn growers in other parts of Laos still had markets available to sell into.
Xayaboury provincial Department of Industry and Commerce Director, Mr Somdy Souksavath, said foreign investors had expressed interest in developing agricultural processing in the province.
“Some investors have already collected information [on investment potential],” he told Vientiane Times .
He said provincial authorities had been struggling to find a market for the corn since Thailand imposed the rule some time ago.
Xayaboury province alone exports more than 300,000 tonnes of corns to Thailand every year, accordi ng to Mr Somdy.
But the selling price of corn generally goes down as the quality of the crop degrades.
While some farmers have their own small-scale drying houses that enable them to keep their corn for longer, there are insufficient warehouses to store it in so the quality will inevitably degrade.
vientiane times
