Lao company brings joy to cassava farmers

VIENTIANE,18 MAY (KPL) - The Indochina Company Group, an outfit that processes cassava, had raised its purchasing price of cassava from growers, 400,000 kip per ton to 450,000 kip, a hefty 38 percent increase, said chairman of this company, Mr Sengmaly Sengvatthana, last week.
The company decided to make this upward price adjustment because the volume of its export had been trending upwards, added the chairman.
Mr Sengmaly also said that for this year the local farmers planted cassava on 4,000 hectares of land, while the company’s target was 5,500 hectares.
Mr Sengmaly disclosed that for next year the company would take steps to mobilise local farmers in three districts, Sangthong district, Vientiane Capital, Borikhanh district, Borikhamsay province and Hom district, Vientiane province, to expand the cassava-growing area to 10,700 hectares.
“However, we were lacking in the acquisition of raw cassava so that we could not fulfill our orders,” Mr Sengmaly added.
Mr Sengmaly said that our export target of cassava flour for 2010 was 30,000 tonnes, but the company exported only 10,000 tonnes for the four and a half months of this year. He added he had been working hard to increase the company’s
production.