[PHNOM PENH POST]
CASSAVA farming is quickly expanding in Battambang province as profit
margins on the crop continue to rise, according to industry experts and
local farmers.
Prices for the plant, which is edible and is used
in ethanol production, have risen considerably, fetching more than
other cash crops such as cotton that are being grown in the province,
Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture president Yang Saing
Koma said yesterday.
“Many people are now investing in cassava,
due to the high prices. They also expect to gain more profit from
cass-ava, as yields are more frequent,” Yang Saing Koma said.
Cotton
farming was also an important cash crop in Batt-ambang, but had been in
decline for five years because of environmental degradation and lower
prices relative to cassava, Rotanak Mondol district farmer Chim Choeb
said.
“We started farming cotton in 2006, but the soil is no
longer good enough for the crop and we can make more money farming
cassava,” he said.
Although more and more farmers are planting
it, prices have increased considerably over the past year as more
foreign buyers show interest in Cambodian cassava.
“In 2010, the
price was 200 to 300 riel a kilogramme for cut and dried cassava, but
it is reaching 700 to 800 riel a kilogramme, due to increasing demand,”
Chim Choeb said.
The ease of growing cassava relative to
labour-intensive crops such as cotton has also likely influenced the
increase in the annual crop, according to Banteay Meancheay
province-based cassava broker Malai Trading Company director Som Yen.
“It’s easier to grow than other crops, and prices are high, pushing farmers to increase their cultivation,” he said.
The
company expects to export 30,000 tonnes of cassava to Thailand, at a
cost of 400 riel a kilogramme, compared to last year’s price of 100 to
200 riel a kilogramme, Som Yen said, adding that the demand from
Thailand and China was driven by ethanol production.
Cambodia’s
exports of cass-ava by volume increased by 74 per cent in the first
five months of this year compared with the same period of 2010, reaching
212,000 tonnes so far in 2011, according to statistics from the
Ministry of Commerce’s Camcontrol Division.
Revenue also grew, reaching US$10.3 million during that period, up from $4.4 million in the first five months of 2010.
Farmers
selling the crop without first processing it are commanding between
200 and 300 riel a kilogramme, whereas the figure reached only 100 riel
last year, according to Rat Borey, a cassava farmer in Sdoau Commune.
“If
the price remains stable, we will continue to farm cassava, possibly
expanding our 10 hectare plot to 40 or 50 hrctsares next year,” he said.
Battambang farmers say they are seeing increasing demand by foreigners to grow and export the crop.
Rat Borey said interest came largely from Korean, Chinese and Thai businessmen who send cassava abroad.
“It
has increased year after year, and investors are now looking for large
plots of land [for contracts], around 5,000 hectares,” he said.
Cassava is planted in March or April and harvested from December to February in Cambodia.
The Kingdom produced about 1.3 per cent of the world’s cassava in 2009, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Nigeria was the largest producer of cassava during that year, with Thailand the second largest, it said.
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