Cassava Market Price

[xerostar]

Today I checked previous posts on cassava prices and I found this:

Nepal4me2008-02-29 15:39:00I have never found a site where I can get the daily or weekly or periodic price level of Cassava.

Anybody have a site to get this info?

Thanks........

and

pete_r2008-02-29 22:35:07For the roots, prices are displayed at the factory gate and vary between different regions (currently around 2000 Bahts/ton). I don't know if there is a website tracking these.

For the starch, the Thai Tapioca Starch Association website has weekly updates:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/

They also have historical data in their "market and statistic" section.

So I checked the website:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/price.asp

and find the Cassava price is now US$440 per metric tonne (FOB Bangkok).

At today's Baht/US$ rate that equals a price of 13,826 Baht per metric tonne.

The website also shows the Domestic price as 12.9 Baht per Kilogram.

(12,900 Baht per tonne)

How can that be if pete_r says it was around "2000 Bahts/ton" ?

Did Pete_r make a mistake? or did the price go from 2000 to 12,900 within 2 months?

Funny - I had taken this price as gospel and had made a lot of calculations based on this un-refuted claim.

Now I'm pleasantly surprised!

Anybody have (or seen) any predictions on how the price may increase over the next year?

[ozzydom]

Today I checked previous posts on cassava prices and I found this:

Nepal4me2008-02-29 15:39:00I have never found a site where I can get the daily or weekly or periodic price level of Cassava.

Anybody have a site to get this info?

Thanks........

and

pete_r2008-02-29 22:35:07For the roots, prices are displayed at the factory gate and vary between different regions (currently around 2000 Bahts/ton). I don't know if there is a website tracking these.

For the starch, the Thai Tapioca Starch Association website has weekly updates:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/

They also have historical data in their "market and statistic" section.

So I checked the website:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/price.asp

and find the Cassava price is now US$440 per metric tonne (FOB Bangkok).

At today's Baht/US$ rate that equals a price of 13,826 Baht per metric tonne.

The website also shows the Domestic price as 12.9 Baht per Kilogram.

(12,900 Baht per tonne)

How can that be if pete_r says it was around "2000 Bahts/ton" ?

Did Pete_r make a mistake? or did the price go from 2000 to 12,900 within 2 months?

Funny - I had taken this price as gospel and had made a lot of calculations based on this un-refuted claim.

Now I'm pleasantly surprised!

Anybody have (or seen) any predictions on how the price may increase over the next year?

It must not be forgotten that these are export prices and bear no resemblance to farm prices

eq,export price of 4th grade rice is about 40,000 baht /tonne

[catwho]

I just planted 30 rai cassava,,,,6 months ago when we took the corn out, cassava was 2200 a ton,2 weeks ago aound our area it had gone up to 2.4 to 2.5 a kilo,we are 50k past pak chong,they take 10% of the total weight for dirt,and if when you sell your corn they have 2 prices wet and dry,,,dry 8.5 wet 6.5 a kilo, they said after putting it though the grinder it was too wet and took 10% off the total,they always get you some way,

the uncle got 7 ton of cassava a rai, good soil and used company ferterlizer,12 months in ground,

if i get 5 i'll be happy.

[xerostar]

Bloody hel_l that means someone is making huge profits while the farmers do all the hard work!

Taking 10% off for dirt - that's ridiculous!

All the Cassava I've seen on the trucks is fairly clean.

At the most 2% would be dirt. (I reckon they'd take 10% off even if it was washed!)

Then they take off another 20% if it's not "dry"?

I wonder how they measure if it's dry or not?

I doubt very much that they use any scientific method.

It's probably left up to how generous the agent feels on that day after he's had "a feel" of a few potatoes in your truck. Are the potatoes on top of the load dryer than the ones underneath? That's an idea ..

In theory you could dessicate the potatoes until they weighed next to nothing.

So by "drying" your potatoes before delivery, you're doing yourself a huge dis-favour by making your harvest weigh-in

at a much lower weight!

The agents must love nice dry loads! - they can pay out a lot less per load.

I thought that was a scam anyway.

If they would just give one good price for cassava straight from the ground, it would save everyone a lot of time and work trying to dry it out on hired concrete slabs and paying fees for front-end loaders to move it about to dry properly before reloading it onto trucks. A lot of double handling seems terribly wasteful to me.

If the domestic price is 12,900 Baht per tonne that means only 50% goes to the farmer for "wet" potatoes!

Surely there must be some way to beat the middle men?

[Nepal4me]

I just planted 30 rai cassava,,,,6 months ago when we took the corn out, cassava was 2200 a ton,2 weeks ago aound our area it had gone up to 2.4 to 2.5 a kilo,we are 50k past pak chong,they take 10% of the total weight for dirt,and if when you sell your corn they have 2 prices wet and dry,,,dry 8.5 wet 6.5 a kilo, they said after putting it though the grinder it was too wet and took 10% off the total,they always get you some way,

the uncle got 7 ton of cassava a rai, good soil and used company ferterlizer,12 months in ground,

if i get 5 i'll be happy.

Good news that the px went up to 2.4 to 2.5 already. We will harvest about 60 rai in Aug/Sept, hope it keeps going up. This will be our first harvest as we bought the land only a few months ago so I don't have the experience yet of going through the selling process. I have heard another story that the buyer tests the starch density and pays based on that figure. You indicate they simply weight it, do a 10% deduction for dirt and then another 10% because it was wet, but nothing on the starch density. Have you heard of this issue before?

My next question is: The factory that buys the Cassava from you, do they convert just to chips or do they convert to bio-ethanol?

If they just convert to chips, do you think it would be difficult to just do that yourself? i.e. buy a tractor to mulch the cassava and then use about 5 rai to dry it out. I'm presuming that's what they do at the factory. After this mulching and drying process, do they then ship it elsewhere for further processing or do they process it further at the factory?

Also do they have cleaning equipment too? That is the process of cleaning the dirt etc off before mulching and drying?

[billd766]

Bloody hel_l that means someone is making huge profits while the farmers do all the hard work!

Taking 10% off for dirt - that's ridiculous!

All the Cassava I've seen on the trucks is fairly clean.

At the most 2% would be dirt. (I reckon they'd take 10% off even if it was washed!)

Then they take off another 20% if it's not "dry"?

I wonder how they measure if it's dry or not?

I doubt very much that they use any scientific method.

It's probably left up to how generous the agent feels on that day after he's had "a feel" of a few potatoes in your truck. Are the potatoes on top of the load dryer than the ones underneath? That's an idea ..

In theory you could dessicate the potatoes until they weighed next to nothing.

So by "drying" your potatoes before delivery, you're doing yourself a huge dis-favour by making your harvest weigh-in

at a much lower weight!

The agents must love nice dry loads! - they can pay out a lot less per load.

I thought that was a scam anyway.

If they would just give one good price for cassava straight from the ground, it would save everyone a lot of time and work trying to dry it out on hired concrete slabs and paying fees for front-end loaders to move it about to dry properly before reloading it onto trucks. A lot of double handling seems terribly wasteful to me.

If the domestic price is 12,900 Baht per tonne that means only 50% goes to the farmer for "wet" potatoes!

Surely there must be some way to beat the middle men?

At the gate just up the road from me the price has dropped to 2100 baht a ton from 2200 a few days ago and it will drop further as the rains come.

Some people up here chop up the cassava themselves but they only have less that 1 rai to deal with.

If you could become a middleman with the concrete area, the front-end loaders etc you too could make much more money, IF ONLY the local "mafia" will let you play. They have been in the business a long time and can afford to outbid you until you go bust, then buy you out at a low cost and consolidate your place into their empire and it will all go back to normal again.

[slapout]

Just goes to show how the Thai farmers are subjected to recieving what the middle man offers, having that price lowered due to mositure, dirt etc. (do they throw in a foreign material such as weeds deduction also?) Some of the other world farmers, to get around this type of screwing decided to dry and chip and feed to their own livestock. Reading the above posts it looks like there is a 30% weight reduction which about covers dry weight vs wet weight. My math is not what it used to be but the middle man potential profit looks a lot better than the farmers. To put this in some type of comparasion. Wheat in real world 12.00/ bu. to farmer, wheat delivered to port is about 12.80/ bu., that 80 cents profit, is lowered by transport cost (truck or Rail). Many elevators work on a 7 to 10 cent/ bu profit after transport is factored out. They make more on storeage than they do on sale many times. Thats the difference in the so called capitalistic system here vs other countries.

[pete_r]

Today I checked previous posts on cassava prices and I found this:

Nepal4me2008-02-29 15:39:00I have never found a site where I can get the daily or weekly or periodic price level of Cassava.

Anybody have a site to get this info?

Thanks........

and

pete_r2008-02-29 22:35:07For the roots, prices are displayed at the factory gate and vary between different regions (currently around 2000 Bahts/ton). I don't know if there is a website tracking these.

For the starch, the Thai Tapioca Starch Association website has weekly updates:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/

They also have historical data in their "market and statistic" section.

So I checked the website:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/price.asp

and find the Cassava price is now US$440 per metric tonne (FOB Bangkok).

At today's Baht/US$ rate that equals a price of 13,826 Baht per metric tonne.

The website also shows the Domestic price as 12.9 Baht per Kilogram.

(12,900 Baht per tonne)

How can that be if pete_r says it was around "2000 Bahts/ton" ?

Did Pete_r make a mistake? or did the price go from 2000 to 12,900 within 2 months?

Funny - I had taken this price as gospel and had made a lot of calculations based on this un-refuted claim.

Now I'm pleasantly surprised!

Anybody have (or seen) any predictions on how the price may increase over the next year?

There are 2 different things with 2 different prices here: 2000 Bahts/ton is the price of the fresh roots (currently it's increased to 2400-2500 Bahts/ton as other posters have mentioned), whereas 12,900 Bahts/ton is the price of the starch after extraction from the root.

The relation between the two is, you have about 25% starch in the cassava roots (range is 23-30% with the current varieties: KU50, Rayong 60, Huay bong 60...). So to get 1 ton of starch, you need more or less 4 tons of cassava roots, usually more because there are some losses during the extraction process. Therefore at 2500 Bahts/ton of roots, the cost of raw materials for the starch extraction factory to produce 1 ton of starch is already 10,000 Bahts. They sell at 12,900 Bahts/ton of starch, not unreasonably high considering they have some overheads to pay for, labour, energy inputs, some chemicals, maintenance etc... (don't worry, they still make a good profit ).

For cassava farming purposes, the price to consider is that of the roots, currently 2400-2500 Bahts/ton. The price of the starch comes into play further down the line.

[xerostar]

Thanks for making that clear for us pete_r.

So is there any reliable source for current root prices other than talking to a local buyer?

[JungleBiker]

So I checked the website:

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/price.asp

and find the Cassava price is now US$440 per metric tonne (FOB Bangkok).

At today's Baht/US$ rate that equals a price of 13,826 Baht per metric tonne.

The website also shows the Domestic price as 12.9 Baht per Kilogram.

(12,900 Baht per tonne)

How can that be if pete_r says it was around "2000 Bahts/ton" ?

Did Pete_r make a mistake? or did the price go from 2000 to 12,900 within 2 months?

Hi Xerostar,

I think you are comparing apples and oranges or in this case cassava roots and starch. The price of $440 is for starch right? Starch is just 22% of the weight of fresh roots; see: http://www.starch.dk/isi/starch/cassava.htm Also if comparing the prices of fresh roots and dried chips you will see at the same web page that the recovery rate for chips from fresh roots is 20 - 40% (because the fresh roots are about 70% water.

So now you can do your own maths and I think you will find that the middlemen do not make as much profit as you imagine when you take all the costs into consideration. If you are getting 2,000 baht/ton (for fresh roots?) and 5 - 7 tons fresh roots/rai then I think it is the farmers who are making huge profits!

Best regards,

JB.

[catwho]

with the cassava yeah thay take the 10% off the farmer when delivered,for dirt even though to us it looks cleen,,if able to dry and cut yourself and wait fo it to dry you get 3.5 to 4.0

with our corn, the neighbor and cousin said we did pick too early so i dont know how many others do what we did,and get touched,for the corn unless u use a john dere you need bags some buyers give them to u some make you pay fo them.

[catwho]

I just planted 30 rai cassava,,,,6 months ago when we took the corn out, cassava was 2200 a ton,2 weeks ago aound our area it had gone up to 2.4 to 2.5 a kilo,we are 50k past pak chong,they take 10% of the total weight for dirt,and if when you sell your corn they have 2 prices wet and dry,,,dry 8.5 wet 6.5 a kilo, they said after putting it though the grinder it was too wet and took 10% off the total,they always get you some way,

the uncle got 7 ton of cassava a rai, good soil and used company ferterlizer,12 months in ground,

if i get 5 i'll be happy.

Good news that the px went up to 2.4 to 2.5 already. We will harvest about 60 rai in Aug/Sept, hope it keeps going up. This will be our first harvest as we bought the land only a few months ago so I don't have the experience yet of going through the selling process. I have heard another story that the buyer tests the starch density and pays based on that figure. You indicate they simply weight it, do a 10% deduction for dirt and then another 10% because it was wet, but nothing on the starch density. Have you heard of this issue before?

My next question is: The factory that buys the Cassava from you, do they convert just to chips or do they convert to bio-ethanol?

If they just convert to chips, do you think it would be difficult to just do that yourself? i.e. buy a tractor to mulch the cassava and then use about 5 rai to dry it out. I'm presuming that's what they do at the factory. After this mulching and drying process, do they then ship it elsewhere for further processing or do they process it further at the factory?

Also do they have cleaning equipment too? That is the process of cleaning the dirt etc off before mulching and drying?

the cousin told me of the 10% dirt, around si shui there are many factorys,did not notice bio,we went to a big factory for cassava chips ,dried,they were 4000 a ton it was to feed his cattle,i saw powdered,chiped and pellet cassava,what they do with it ,dont know,

my mate has a stud he buys the mulch ,wet, and chiped cassava,both aound 4000 a ton,for his beef

the mrs said ,,as they all do,BIG money in factory,maybe,but big outlay as well.

[JungleBiker]

The prices you guys are looking for are on this page (in Thai); they list prices of roots in different parts of the country...

http://www.thaitapiocastarch.org/market_detail.asp?id=172

JB.

[gonzobrains]

Hi,

Are all you guys farang or Thai as well? I am surprised to see so many people writing in English about farming cassava. Are you doing it for fun during retirement or actually trying to make a living? I thought it wasn't easy for foreigners to buy substantial amounts of farmland for commercial purposes?

In any case, I wanted to comment about cassava prices. My friend lives outside of Korat, and her family has been growing cassava for many years. I visited some of the factories there and prices really depend on location of the factory and how big the factory is. Every factory I visited has a price chart, which pays higher prices for higher quality roots. They basically sample your truckload of roots and float the sample in a bucket of water on a scale. That tells them the percentage of dry matter versus water. The more dry matter (starch specifically) the higher the price.

The big factories pay big money because they need tons and tons and TONS of cassava per day to keep the factories profitable. You'd be amazed just how many roots the process per day. The trucks roll in until just after nightfall, and line up until well into the night to drop off their loads. But the factories keep going 'round the clock because of how many roots they get.

I have seen smaller companies closer to the farm areas who buy cassava at a much lower price. They are not factories, per se, but they cut up the cassava they buy and dry it themselves. They have a few rai of concrete where they just let the stuff dry in the sun. I presume they are middlemen, then taking their dried products to a larger plant. I suspect farmers that only have e-tans or small tuk-tuks go here because it is not feasible for them to go to the far-away factories.

Some of the factories make agreements with the local farming co-op organizations for a guaranteed price. I have seen one farmer go to his local co-op/union/whatever, get a certificate guaranteeing a top price, and then provide it to the factory upon delivery. I would imagine this is a deal factories make to guarantee a certain volume of roots (see above where I said they really need roots all the time to keep the factories profitable).

Jeff

p.s., if anyone has any cassava farmland in the korat (preferably near nong mai pai) area or even chonburi/pattaya area for sale/rent, please let me know. Thanks!

[Khonwan]

Hi,

Are all you guys farang or Thai as well? I am surprised to see so many people writing in English about farming cassava. Are you doing it for fun during retirement or actually trying to make a living? I thought it wasn't easy for foreigners to buy substantial amounts of farmland for commercial purposes?

Those who have written on the subject in this forum todate are all farangs, AFAIK. Some may well be supplementing their retirement, others may just be utilising some land they own (i.e. in their wife's name), others (like me) depend on farming. Foreigners cannot buy land here for any reason.

Rgds

Khonwan

[gonzobrains]

Hi,

Are all you guys farang or Thai as well? I am surprised to see so many people writing in English about farming cassava. Are you doing it for fun during retirement or actually trying to make a living? I thought it wasn't easy for foreigners to buy substantial amounts of farmland for commercial purposes?

Those who have written on the subject in this forum todate are all farangs, AFAIK. Some may well be supplementing their retirement, others may just be utilising some land they own (i.e. in their wife's name), others (like me) depend on farming. Foreigners cannot buy land here for any reason.

Rgds

Khonwan

I am guessing then that these retired farangs bought land under their wives' names.

Do you know where I can help my friend find farmland for sale/rent in the Korat (Nong Mai Pai) area?

Her family has been engaged in cassava farming for many years. She told me recently many people from Laos and Cambodia have been purchasing cassava stalks from her village to start farms in their countries. Is this happening in your area, too?

Jeff

[Khonwan]

I am guessing then that these retired farangs bought land under their wives' names.

Do you know where I can help my friend find farmland for sale/rent in the Korat (Nong Mai Pai) area?

Her family has been engaged in cassava farming for many years. She told me recently many people from Laos and Cambodia have been purchasing cassava stalks from her village to start farms in their countries. Is this happening in your area, too?

Jeff

Hi Jeff

I'm not sure if you are addressing me but, to your first point: yes; to your 1st question:no; to your 2nd question:no (I'm around 60km from the Burmese border but have around 50km of unbroken forested mountains between my house and the border).

Rgds

Khonwan

[gonzobrains]

ok well please advise me where I can find land then. thanks.

[skyovietnam]

Dear friends,

We are looking for the buyers for cassava/monioc/ Tapioca to Thailand Market so if you have any information about the buyers, please feel free contact with me via email: [email protected]/ [email protected]

Skyo Co., Ltd

Tel: 84-977010483

Fax: 84-08-9955888

email: [email protected]

[Maizefarmer]

Keep in mind guys that the FOB price for Cassava is given for around 12.1% - 12.2% moisture - this is the international standard for traded Cassava.

Like maize/corn, when talking about the price per kilo or per ton for Cassava, it needs to be against moisture content (expressed as a percentage of total weight) - the more moist the heavier and therefore the cheaper will be the price you are quoted, the dryer the lighter and therefore the higher the price you will (should) be quoted.

Edited August 1, 2008 by Maizefarmer