Growing medicinal plants in Thailand

[IvGeg]

Hi, everyone. I've tried to find any information on growing midicical plants in Thailand. However, didn't find anything on the forum or much online. Would be able anyone to share his or her knowledge  or give an advice on the following idea. I'm a foreign nation and don't have a Thai spouce. I would like to come to Thailand, rent few rais of farmland and crop medicinal herbs for furter export. I found THE FOREIGN BUSINESS ACT that advising on some types of businesses that foreigners cannot proceed. The most important part in my situation, as I understand, is this one:

LISTS ANNEXED TO THE FOREIGN BUSINESS ACT, B.E. 2542 (1999)

Prohibited and restricted businesses in Thailand

List One – Foreign Investment Prohibited

1. Rice farming, plantation or crop growing

2. Extraction of Thai medicinal herbs

 

Does anyone know the p.1 is related just to rice or medicinal plants as well? p.2 am I not allowed to extact all medicinal herbs or only "Thai" and if I growed it by myself can I process it or I can't do anything with it? Will it change the situation if I will find local business partner or this type of business completely prohibited for foreigners and the only way is to find a loyal spouce? 

 

Second part is about getting the land. It is more straight forward and lots of cases can be found online. Does anyone know is it difficult to lease a land for 5-10yrs as a foreigner. I found only few advertisement on thai real estates web-sites about land for lease, but what about the real life?

 

I would much appreciate any information on the topic. Thank you. 

 

[pineapple01]

Is this just a how 2 get stoned on the cheap.

[innosiem]

Forget it
you are a foreigner and not permitted 
and what you are really talking about
is extremely difficult even for Thais
this is not the US

[CLW]

You should (actually almost must) install a Thai proxy or business manager.

It starts with communication first.

How can you talk or negotiate with people here unless you speak and read Thai.

Secondly all business related registrations and processes are of course done with Thai authorities.

Unless you want to spend a fortune with an agency such as a lawyer or get a heart attack if you do it by yourself (because they are going to drive you insane, I'm serious), you should have a Thai person deal with Thai authorities.

Third, leasing or renting your land. As you know, you can't own land. Renting some farmland for yourself might be difficult, too.

This is 99% advertised by mouth propaganda and not advertised anywhere.

 

Unless your herb, that you want to grow is very special, a lot of varieties are available from farmers here.

A few of them with good quality and certifications such as GAP or even organic.

 

So for your intention, I recommend you start trading first and later on look for a farming business.

[LukKrueng]

9 hours ago, IvGeg said:

the only way is to find a loyal spouce? 

That's a new one. Getting married in order to start a business....

[tifino]

 even Mangosteen and Passionfruit husks are medicinal -  when processed properly by  someone who knows what they're doing...

[IvGeg]

4 hours ago, CLW said:

Unless your herb, that you want to grow is very special, a lot of varieties are available from farmers here.

So for your intention, I recommend you start trading first and later on look for a farming business.

CLW, thank you. It is good advice to start with trading and explore the market availability first. The plan is to go for few months around Thailand and explore different opportunities. Chat to people, find few friends who would like to improve their english and earn some money for their time and help with thai translation, maybe collect some data and soil samples for a composition analysis to develop better strategy on how to increase the profitbility of the case. 

 

15 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

That's a new one. Getting married in order to start a business....

Probably it is about right terms and conditions beforehand. Kidding, I read too much about broken guys on forums to get into it. However, there is always a chance that both of you fall deeply in love and have same values and goals in life to start something serious.

 

25 minutes ago, tifino said:

 even Mangosteen and Passionfruit husks are medicinal -  when processed properly by  someone who knows what they're doing...

I'm just trying to understand is there a list of "Thai medicinal herbs", or any medicinal herb growed in Thailand automatically become a part of that list.

 

Can anyone advise me on how many workers required per 1rai/ 1ha and their wages (~13500thb/mnth?) in the north part of the country.  Thank you guys.

[seabear]

Just out of curiosity, which plants are you thinking of planting?

[NCC1701A]

10 hours ago, IvGeg said:

I would like to come to Thailand, rent few rais of farmland and crop medicinal herbs for furter export.

what visa are you going to use?

 

[IvGeg]

 

1 hour ago, seabear said:

Just out of curiosity, which plants are you thinking of planting?

Plants used in Asian traditional medicine and for pharm products. The types will be chosen after research on perspectives and market requirements * soil and environment conditions * rotating with other types to maximise land usage. Still long way to go and lots of home work. 

48 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

what visa are you going to use?

 

Type B non-immigrant visa. I think it is the most appropriate one in my case. Please correct me, if I'm wrong. 

[scoupeo]

Do what you want, nobody cares ! If you would see my plants growing, you would envy me ❤️

 

 

[Evolare]

3 hours ago, IvGeg said:

CLW, thank you. It is good advice to start with trading and explore the market availability first. The plan is to go for few months around Thailand and explore different opportunities. Chat to people, find few friends who would like to improve their English and earn some money for their time and help with thai translation, maybe collect some data and soil samples for a composition analysis to develop better strategy on how to increase the profitability of the case. 

 

Probably it is about right terms and conditions beforehand. Kidding, I read too much about broken guys on forums to get into it. However, there is always a chance that both of you fall deeply in love and have same values and goals in life to start something serious.

 

I'm just trying to understand is there a list of "Thai medicinal herbs", or any medicinal herb growed in Thailand automatically become a part of that list.

 

Can anyone advise me on how many workers required per 1rai/ 1ha and their wages (~13500thb/mnth?) in the north part of the country.  Thank you guys.

 

I'm happy to answer question not been answered yet, I actually have a business that is one of the larger suppliers of rawmaterial for feed and organic fertilizers and amendments in Thailand we also provide agricultural consulting services for all kinds of farms such which includes soil tests etc. I have tested soils in close to 350 farms in the last 2 years. As for herbs we have hundreds of customers in that field alone growing anything from turmeric, and ginger to cannabis.

 

Plus that we have our own growing operations in Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi and Kanchanaburi. and developing some show-grow around one of our factories.

 

But to be able to answer your questions I have a few questions:
What "Thai medicinal herbs" are you talking about? (different herbs require different amount of attention, you can PM me if you don't want to talk about it in the forum.)
What degree of automation and mechanization, irrigation are you considering?
You want to grow in greenhouse or purely outdoors?

Will you grow in engineered soils or in native soils?

 

Thais in general will be difficult to get even in the North as laborers in the farm more and more of them has taken jobs in factories or other type of businesses, they want to be out of the sun. 

 

But minimum salary is around 320-350 baht per day for non-skilled labor. But getting people who want to work at the rate is another issue. If you want skilled workers salaries will be higher. If you want a farm manager who studied at Agricultural university and who speak English that you can communicate with for that salary will start around 25K +/- 5K. 

How many workers do you need if you would consider 1 worker in the western world per a certain piece of land I would say consider at least 2-3 people to do the same job here as workers they tend to be less effective here especially if you don't have cameras and management supervising them. 

 

 

[Evolare]

2 minutes ago, scoupeo said:

Do what you want, nobody cares ! If you would see my plants growing, you would envy me ❤️

 

 

Sounds good show us what you growing!

[SiSePuede419]

Legalize it. ????

[IvGeg]

10 hours ago, Evolare said:

But to be able to answer your questions I have a few questions:

What "Thai medicinal herbs" are you talking about? (different herbs require different amount of attention, you can PM me if you don't want to talk about it in the forum.)
What degree of automation and mechanization, irrigation are you considering?
You want to grow in greenhouse or purely outdoors?

Will you grow in engineered soils or in native soils?

Thank you for your questions. At the beginning the idea is to find a suitable plot of land based on existing conditions. If it will be economically viable then adjust accordingly to the product. For the start it will be primarily outdoor with few greennouses and hydroponics facilities for further tests with intension to extend them in future. In terms of mechanisation and irrigation start with basics. Like a tractor with few attachments. For irrigation I'm trying to look at areas close to rivers with relatively easy available water. Dig some channels around the field, install pumps, connected to sprinklers on wheels. Plant types are not finalised yet. 

 

Any thoughts on the legal aspects of such business, please? Is it possible if someone from local administration might see a foreigner doing business and decide to pop up one day and give a hint about brown envelope? 

[CLW]

On 7/18/2020 at 6:44 AM, IvGeg said:

Thank you for your questions. At the beginning the idea is to find a suitable plot of land based on existing conditions. If it will be economically viable then adjust accordingly to the product. For the start it will be primarily outdoor with few greennouses and hydroponics facilities for further tests with intension to extend them in future. In terms of mechanisation and irrigation start with basics. Like a tractor with few attachments. For irrigation I'm trying to look at areas close to rivers with relatively easy available water. Dig some channels around the field, install pumps, connected to sprinklers on wheels. Plant types are not finalised yet. 

 

Any thoughts on the legal aspects of such business, please? Is it possible if someone from local administration might see a foreigner doing business and decide to pop up one day and give a hint about brown envelope? 

Have you thought yet where you are going to locate your business?

Generally speaking in the north the plot size is rather small and hilly / rolling hills.

You might get a problem if you want to cultivate huge flat plots.

Rivers in Thailand not carry water all year and then of course you have to share with other farmers, especially rice farmers who grow off-season rice.

Better to invest in your own well.

Sprinkler on wheels, do you mean a hose reel irrigation?

I have only seen a few in the northeast of Thailand, from my own sightings around Pak Chong area.

Not much popular here and quite expensive because mostly imported machinery.

Maybe some of the active farmers on this forum read this and can tell you more.

[IvGeg]

23 minutes ago, CLW said:

Have you thought yet where you are going to locate your business?

Rivers in Thailand not carry water all year and then of course you have to share with other farmers, especially rice farmers who grow off-season rice.

Better to invest in your own well.

Sprinkler on wheels, do you mean a hose reel irrigation?

I have only seen a few in the northeast of Thailand, from my own sightings around Pak Chong area.

Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai are the most suitable areas due to logistics. Yes, hose on reels is the one. However, I'm not familiar with the most common practices so it might be adjusted for economical reasons. A system of pipes with sprinklers might be a good solution, but it might be not suitable if the roots of plants will require extraction. And it will be some hassle to pick up all sprinklers and then bring the tractor there. In best case scenario it's a system on arduino with connected soil and weather sensors that might turn the system on and off depends on conditions. 

Edited July 20, 2020 by IvGeg
Spelling mistake

[Evolare]

On 7/18/2020 at 6:44 AM, IvGeg said:

Thank you for your questions. At the beginning the idea is to find a suitable plot of land based on existing conditions. If it will be economically viable then adjust accordingly to the product. For the start it will be primarily outdoor with few greennouses and hydroponics facilities for further tests with intension to extend them in future. In terms of mechanisation and irrigation start with basics. Like a tractor with few attachments. For irrigation I'm trying to look at areas close to rivers with relatively easy available water. Dig some channels around the field, install pumps, connected to sprinklers on wheels. Plant types are not finalised yet. 

 

Any thoughts on the legal aspects of such business, please? Is it possible if someone from local administration might see a foreigner doing business and decide to pop up one day and give a hint about brown envelope? 

As for legal aspect if you do it correctly most herbs are not limited for Thais to grow. Is it possible local administration will want some hush money yes absolutely but if your doing everything by the book legally you can tell them to <deleted> OFF, essentially if they can they will try. So make sure you got all grounds covered.

 

Rivers and klongs many times have quite contaminated water so some herbs might not be suitable for extraction or something like it. that also goes for the soil in farmlands here unless its been organic so as for Irrigation like CLW said digging a well can be a good idea.

 

 

[Evolare]

12 hours ago, IvGeg said:

Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai are the most suitable areas due to logistics. Yes, hose on reels is the one. However, I'm not familiar with the most common practices so it might be adjusted for economical reasons. A system of pipes with sprinklers might be a good solution, but it might be not suitable if the roots of plants will require extraction. And it will be some hassle to pick up all sprinklers and then bring the tractor there. In best case scenario it's a system on arduino with connected soil and weather sensors that might turn the system on and off depends on conditions. 

Hose on reels is only suitable for huge flats lands drip irrigation or subsoil irrigation might be better suited for herbs...drip lines can be rolled in before harvesting.

 

arduino automation is not a bad idea I have a the parts for a system but they are still in boxes...well see when I get around to it. ????  I have an field with all parts supplied by Netafim except for the automation which they said is still a year away from being ready, and thats why I bought the ardunio stuff... 

[IvGeg]

What about well price, irrigation systems and other services to hire machines with operators for exalts, or for field tests prices? Can anyone suggest any online resources with useful information? Thai will do. Google translate doing pretty good now. 

 

Do you have to have 51% belongs to Thai person in your company if you want to do agricultural business? 

 

I found that in Thailand it is approximate 1.2 farm workers / hectare. Of course it depends on automation and mechanisation of your process but still, would you consider it as a fair number. Also what is the most common size of land to lease out in the North? Is it difficult to get 5-10ha? To start with 12 local workers (11 field, plus agricultural manager), a tractor and some other small equipment do you think it is reasonable to start with 8-9 ha? How difficult it will be to  scale it up? Thank you for your replies, guys. 

[kickstart]

On 7/20/2020 at 9:59 AM, CLW said:

 

I have only seen a few in the northeast of Thailand, from my own sightings around Pak Chong area.

Not much popular here and quite expensive because mostly imported machinery.

Maybe some of the active farmers on this forum read this and can tell you more.

This is what you meant ,I think it 1 1/2 inch ideal for small scale farming ,for sale near me Lopburi, but they want 190 000 baht ,I think it was Italian ,and they do make some of the best irrigation equipment ,not cheap .but will last you.

You could  try Alibaba ,for something cheaper.

[IvGeg]

^{I saw somewhere on the forum CLW suggested to contact the SGS consultancy. However they replied, that they can do only inspection and soil/water testing. Can anyone share useful links with machinery hire/purchase prices, or any other related costs such as services, equipment. I read that there are few different types of land and on some of them you can't build. Is it just related to permanent structure or any structure including temporary (green houses, site office from shipping containers)? is it common in Thailand to use containers transformed to site facilities? Also how difficult to connect it to the power network or maybe it is easier to use diesel fenerator or solar panels?}

[CLW]

1 hour ago, IvGeg said:

^{I saw somewhere on the forum CLW suggested to contact the SGS consultancy. However they replied, that they can do only inspection and soil/water testing. Can anyone share useful links with machinery hire/purchase prices, or any other related costs such as services, equipment. I read that there are few different types of land and on some of them you can't build. Is it just related to permanent structure or any structure including temporary (green houses, site office from shipping containers)? is it common in Thailand to use containers transformed to site facilities? Also how difficult to connect it to the power network or maybe it is easier to use diesel fenerator or solar panels?}

What is your purpose for SGS or any testing?

 

There are few companies that rent or sell office containers. You can find via google search.