Laos want its organically grown rice to be certified

(KPL) The chemical-free foodstuffs are in high demand in local and overseas markets, particularly organic rice but there is a need for them to be certified for its chemically free status by international certification organizations, said a Lao official.
With such a stamp of certification, the organic rice that is being grown in Sangthong district, Vientiane can be exported overseas and it would fetch high prices.
The organic rice plantation in Sangthong district, Vientiane Capital belongs to Helvetas, a Swiss company.
The project started in January 2006 and up to date it had five hundred farmers actively producing organic rice in Sangthong district.
Helvetas is working with the Department of Agriculture, producers and others to obtain organic certification for its rice.
The company’s spokesman said that it is working hard to get its rice to be certified so that it would have such rice in quantity from the 2009 growing season for export but the non-certified but organically grown rice is readily available.
Though farmers are able to produce 700 tonnes of organic rice per year but so far Helvetas has only exported 4 tonnes of such rice to Switzerland but it is doing all it can to export more and more of its high price rice in the near future.
The operational period of the Helvetas project of organic rice plantation has ended and it had asked for an extension, from 2009 to 2011.