jopham

They are saying to have to stay in a covid hotel for 2 weeks and then you are allowed to leave Phuket. What does that mean? Does is mean you travel free throught out Phuket and go and sleep in your hotel or can you only stay in the hotel grounds?

I figure the biggest problem would be finding all the help you need when you need it.

To overcome part of this problem my wife has made 2 business contacts in Isaan where they supply us with about 30-35 persons to help in the havesting time. But that is gives a lot of problems as well.

She employs 8-10 persons full time besides to people from Isaan.

Cheers Jopham

quick reply to Thoongfoned

We never sell early.

This year the price will be around the 850 baht mark (plus if the sugar contence is higher than normal you might get 50 up to 200 baht per ton more) Last year to have the sugarcane cut and transported to the sugarmill (price is said by the sugarmill) was 290 baht per ton.

So if the sugar is good you can expect about 900 baht per ton. If you get offered 350-450 per ton and the cost for them is 290baht to cut and deliver, you can work out how much you are losing out of.

If the rent of the land was only 500 baht per rai, I think that my wife would have never bought but only rented.

200 Rai times roughly 35.000 baht is 7.000.000 baht. 200 Rai times 500 baht is 100.000 baht. By sticking 7 mil in the bank you get more than 100,000 even in Thailand.

Cheers Jopham

Shit I just lost 45 minutes of typing a reply to Thoonfoned and a further update and lost it all in a computer glitz.

I will reply soon.

I have 2 year old twins and they need their daddy.

Nev do you know why and/or how they lost big money?

Just a little report from our area (border Phitsanulok, Sukothai and Kampeang Phet). You pay 3000 baht rent for 1 rai of farmland and everybody is asking for a 6 year lease.

That starts to add up if you wanted to lease 50 rai. 50 rai times 3000 baht times 6 years is 900000 baht up front without planting cost yet.

My wifes owns little bit more than 200 rai and was leasing last year an other 300 something rai all together it was 550 rai. This year 120 rai was up for renewal of the lease. 6 Years ago she paid 1250 baht per rai now she was told 3000 baht. My wife politely said no.

3 Years ago with about 450 rai of sugarcain she produced about 6400 ton. A lot of rain, just perfect

2 years ago with about 500 rai of sugarcain she produced about 6100 ton. She got flooded on about 100 rai,

Last year with about 550 rai of sugarcain she produced about 5800 ton. She was snowed under with to much land and no labourers. Only 80 procent of all the fields got proper attention in regard of weeding and fertilizing.

I told her the farm is getting to big and she has realized that. So when the leases come up for renewal the answer was no, The people who owned the land had it leased out within a week, there were plenty of takers at 3000 baht a rai.

She wants to go back to about 400 rai so it is more manageable.

She wants to buy another 100 rai and lease a 100 rai so the total will be 300 rai owned and 100 rai leased, 300 to 100 and not 200 to 200 (or higher) makes much more sense to me and she has finally realized that.

10 years ago we got about 850 Baht per ton and slowly increase over the next 6 years to about 1050 baht per ton. Now it is slowly going down and reached 850 baht again.

She owns all the machinery to plant, fertilize, harvest and transport it to the sugarmills. Every field has got access to water in the dry season.

14 Years ago when she bought her first pieces of land, the price was about 14-15000 baht per rai with proper papers. Now it is between 120 000 baht for land with proper paper that does not have access to a decent road and 150 000 and more with decent access.

4 Months ago she had to sell to the government a strip a land that measured 8 by 200 meters. This was on a dirt track. The government needed the land to widen the road. This piece of land was 75 rai now it is 74 rai. The government paid 220 000 baht per rai ( I wished they had bought the lot, she paid 12 years ago 25 000 baht per rai ) plus all cost.

So since 4 months the farmers around here are now asking for 200 000 baht per rai for pieces of land on dirt roads but I have not heard of anybody being able to sell at that price HAHA.

The end of a quick report.

Jopham

Thank you

Is Mae Sot open for visa runs at the moment?

I normally go to Nong Kai but I thought Mae Sot might be a change of scenery

Thanks John

Hi klubex99

Why don`t you only rent 6 rai and grow 6 different strains of sugarcane. Than next year when you get the results of which it growing the best I would grow some more of the 2 best performing strains of sugarcane on another piece of land. When you are a bit more confident about their performence go and rent your 50 rais and you wil need 50 rai as a minimum to have a contract with the sugarmill.

A little bit of background from me.

My wife and her family started growing sugarcane 7 years ago (about 20 rai), Now over 500 rai, half owned half leased.

They grow it in 3 year cycles so I would only lease for a minimum of 6 years ( 2 cycles) not 5 years.

Finding people to cut and cart your sugarcane wil be your biggest problem. To overcome this problem we bought our own trucks and cutting crew but is not viable on 50 rai. you will need atleast 300 rai to do this. I would lease/rent/buy land as close to the nearest sugarmill as possible. Contract cutters don`t like to spend money on diesel to cart it to the sugarmill and will not do only 6 rai or 50 rai if it is 40-50 kms from the sugarmill or wait untill they run out of work at the end of the season.

You were talking about the sugarlevel of the cut sugarcane and the fresher it is the higher the sugar contance. Yes that is very true but it is of near no importance If they have to cut it by hand. They will burn your sugarcane before they start cutting (loose more than 10 procent of it sugarlevel) or if you want it cut fresh you will have to pay extra. The first cut sugarcane will not be loaded untill maybe 4-5 hours later when you have a full truck if you are lucky. Start counting the hours every hour you loose 1% of it sugar contance or more. Plus transport, a fully load truck will only travel at 30 kms an hour becauce they overload it by 30-40%

If the sugar was burned the truck will sit in a cue to be unload and it is not uncommon to have 12 hour wait time (even if you deliver 7000 tonnes or more like my family does)

If you cut fresh there is hardly any waitting time (max 1 hour)

To cut 1 rai it will take a 20 person crew 1,5 hours. max in a day is 9 rai but most of time its about 6,5 to 7 ray a day if the sugar is good.

If you want to cut by machine you have to plant your sugarcane at a certain distance from each other and your yield will be a lot smaller.

One bit of advise LISTEN TO YOUR MIL

I have all ready invested more than 25 million baht (sorry my family have) and still have to see a half decent return. 4% would be nice but it is running a lot lower.

Cheers,

Jopham

I looked up on wikipedi: boorax treated wood

and got this:

""Borate preservatives

Boric acid, oxides and salts (borates) are effective wood preservatives and are supplied under numerous brand names throughout the world. Borate treated wood is of low toxicity to humans, and does not contain copper or other heavy metals. However, unlike most other preservatives, borate compounds do not become fixed in the wood and can readily be leached out. Therefore they should not be used where they will be exposed to rain, water or ground contact. Recent interest in low toxicity timber for residential use, along with new regulations restricting some wood preservation agents, has resulted in a resurgence of the use of borate treated wood for floor beams and internal structural members""

I would love to see how your house will hold up in lets say in 5-10 years

I would not mind to put a bamboo extention on to my house in a couple of years if it holds very well.

cheers

jopham

Maybe try a vw dealership.

^

Sorry, this thread is about clean, nice and cheap places.

Once again, as one of the many customers who attend these places, it's not of my concern how they managed it, or should some people want we boycott these places because they are to cheap.

I was only recalling the price of beer what this bar owner could get it for about 6 years ago because some members where wondering if this place could still make a profit. No business can survive without making profit so it must be of some kind of concern to you if they do or not because otherwise this clean, nice and CHEAP place might not be there soon.

Cheers,

jopham

I just to go to a bar in soi 2 for many years and got to know the owner very well. She bought small Shinga beer bottles for 12 Baht and small Heineken for 15 Baht. That was only 6 years ago. How much would it cost now? 30% - 40% more? How much profit can you still make?

Cheers

jopham

Are you sure is not spelled Nurun condo in Pattaya? If so I found this:

http://wikimapia.org/2317868/Nirun-Grand-View-Condos

Good Luck

Hi Ray2020

Yes according to what I know labour is included.

Cheers

jopham

Jopham having read your post I will take it you are now are main man on this forum on sugar. Hope it works out and keep us posted on how it goes, you never know how the oil prices may go and bio fuel may be a real go again. I for one am always looking at alternatives. Jim

Like I stated before, I am only looking over my wifes shoulder and trying to pick up what the family is talking about. So what I write here might be absolute rubbish. So, please correct me if I am wrong.

cheers

johpam

Hi Ray2020

Yes according to what I know labour is included.

Cheers

jopham

Hello Ray2020

I will try to get the ball rolling with the sugarcane. I only look over the shoulder from my wife and would happy to be correctly corrected on any thing that write on this forum and please forgive me for my bad English since it is not my first langauge.

My Thai family-in-law grows sugarcane. They have plus minus 630 rai of which roughly 550 rai is sugarcane and 60 rai of rice and 20 rai of teak trees.

They would love to convert the 60 rai of rice to sugarcane but it is low lying and floods. The land you want to buy must high with good drainage and have a good water supply.(sugarcane does not like standing in water in the wet season but loves water in the dry season) They do their own planting, weeding, fertilizing, watering, harvesting and transporting to the sugarmill. They also cut another 50 rai for the next door neighboor. They employ 6 people fulltime and harvest time up to 35 people.

Besides labour cost, the biggest cost they have is diesel during the cutting season. So the first thing I would ask you is, how far are you from the nearest sugarmill? Because the sugarmills set a standand fee for the cutting and transport per tonne of sugarcane (I think last season it was about 300 baht per tonne) so if you are to far away from the sugarmill you will have problems finding contractor to do this. Finding a good contrator could be a big problem by it self. That why the F-I-L do it all them shelves.

Sugarcane gets planted once and for the next 3 years harvested (once a year) and if you look after them very well you might get a 4th year and then you need to replant. Planting cost are roughly 6500 - 7000bht including fertilizing, weeding and watering for the first year. Return could be a low as 8 tonne or as high 17 tonne per rai (F-I-L counts on 13 tonne per rai) The minimum price for sugarcane last year was set at 1050bht. If your sugar contence is higher then you get a bonus. The sugarmill takes a few samples from every truckload and test it for the sugar contence.

For example counting on 13 tonne times 1050bht minus 300bht (harvesting and transport) you would get 9250bht less 1st year planting cost. For a first year return about 2250bht - 2750bht per rai.

The second year the yield normally is higher by an average of 1 tonne per rai and your fertilizing, weeding and watering are roughly 3500bht - 4000bht per rai.

So the return would something like this: 14 times 1050bht minus 300bht (harvesting and transport) less 3500bht - 4000bht (fertilizing, weeding and watering) equals 6000bht -6500bht per rai.

The 3rd year yield is about same or maybe a little higher than the 1st year.

So the return would something like this: 13 times 1050bht minus 300bht (harvesting and transport) less 3500bht - 4000bht (fertilizing, weeding and watering) equals 5250bht -5750bht per rai. Than you have clean and preper the land for the new planting at 1500Bht - 2000Bht.

Then the cycle strats all over.

If you let grow for the 4th year you will get about 8-9 tonne per rai I have been told.

If any other members think that I am wrong with the above I would be happy to correct it. I am away ready to listen and learn.

I only look in the farming section once week or so. Expect a slow reply.

Cheers

jopham

In Phitsanulok this vehicles are called rot-e-tan and if they have only 2 wheels they are called e-tan. I had one built last year with a enclosed cabin and instead of a little kubota engine had a secondhand Toyota 2.5 litre diesel (85 hp) put in there. First drive I had in it scrared the sh`t out of me. Hardly any brakes!! Doing roughly 80kph it took 200 meters to come to a full stop!! I think it will easily do 120 kph. The brakes are a bit better now but not much. I had to take the doors off because of the tremendous heat of the motor. I will try soon to put some better brakes on it so I can scare the locals when I sneak up to them from behind doing 120kph plus with my high beams flashing.

cheers

jopham

I do not know the sitiation at moment but Thai nationals got a 30 day tourist visa on arrival in NZ a couple of years ago.

An other option could be to go to Fiji.

Cheers

jopham

joint 11-26-2002 under username johpam but lost my password so rejoint as jopham (what number was johpam?)

cheers johpam alias jopham

Johpam - member 66

Thanks Tywais

joint 11-26-2002 under username johpam but lost my password so rejoint as jopham (what number was johpam?)

cheers johpam alias jopham

There is only one big problem!! The Thais value the car and if THEY value it at a 150.000 Bht you have to pay 300.000 Bht import duty. It does not matter WHAT you paid for the car even if you got the car for free. Unless you have HIGH connections I would not try it but if you do I wish you good luck. If you go ahead with it please let us know how it went because I would like to bring a my thai wife`s car over from Australia in a couple of years.

Cheers

jopham

I think its to wet at the moment.

In our area (phitsanulok, kamphang phet, sukothai) the sugarmills are still open so you can sell it to them.

I do not know which area you are but most likely they are still open

Cheers

jopham

I spotted a 1951 4 door Packard in Phitsanulok a couple months ago.

There is a Citroen DS for sale outside a restaurant on Kanchanapisek Rd (Outer Ring Rd).The guy has 4 or 5 that he keeps in the restaurant car park but a white one is up for sale.

Any more info? prize, year, condition , 21/23. model phonenumber ect.

Thanks jopham