Pumpkin Growers In Crisis

[slapout]

Chiang Mai Mail has a article about, as the title says no market for pumpkin. No prices were quoted but reference was made to Hod area and some family business who stood to lose 1 million baht in seed costs which was loaned to farmers. Mention was made of lack of cold storage. Anyone in the business who can shed some light on this. Sounds like the entire area is dependent on this crop, why is market so depressed this year.

[Lickey]

We have a similar problem, pick-up trucks would come from Udon Thani earlier this year {100ks} and pay 8bht kilo for papaya, now unless we can gaurantee 7tonnes,[2pick-ups] at 3bht kilo they wont come!!!

They blame fuel as the main overhead, so of course the famer suffers, we have to pay extra for fertilizer ect,and suffer the cosequences of low wholesale prices,,

[SAP]

I would have a guess, that at this time last year the price was probably good or excellent, and therefore all the pumpkin growers all put in a few rai of pumpkins instead of corn (or whatever other crop they may grow)

Back home with fresh market potatoes we used to see this all the time. A shortage is created by a drought in one area or some other disaster, and then the majority of farmers will put in another 10% area next year. This creates an over supply the market hits rock bottom again, and the cycle goes on.

Anyone know about the commune system that alot farmers are now using in the US. I know it was instigated by a Japanese-American guy who was consequently one of the largest land owners in the US and one of the biggest potato farmers. He had almost gone broke on 2 or 3 occasions because of the market fluctuations. Therefore he started up a commune type system, where all the potato farmers register with a communal supply company (owned by the farmers themselves). This company then allocates planting area's and planting dates to the farmers. This would stop the overlap in seasons, when one area is still harvesting while another was kicking into gear, and in turn stabilize the market price. The farmers for once had control on the supply. From what I heard farmers returns increased by big margins, and for once the farmer wasn't dictated to the big supermarkets. I am sure there must be some flaws to system, anyone know any other details??

[slapout]

From the article the Hod problem sounds like what SAP mentions. One family furnished seed to 2000 +_ Thai farmers, they plant at same time and have massive over supply. The seed supplier was working on credit, thus is bankrupt, in theory, no money to buy product from farmers for a reasonable price, as the wholesale buyers are telling the whole group what they will pay (take or leave it) Next step is to dump pumpkin on highway like the other produce farmers have been doing and demand govt guarentee price.

[SAP]

I found this on the net about the potato "Cartel" in the US..........

http://www.hcn.org/issues/352/17171

I hope it works out as I had heard they were now experimenting with other crops too

[lazeeboy]

so we should cancel halloween

[wdrk7]

Just another dirty trick by those middle man to trick poor farmers like us . Dirty bastards .

[Issangeorge]

The potato cartel sounds like the marketing boards we have in Canada for milk and other products. It is a good system for the farmer who is a member. You don't see too many poor dairy farmers in Canada. The problem with it as a consumer you pay higher prices and the farmers are only allowed to produce a certain amount of milk, so if they are efficient and enterprising they are out of luck. Issangeorge

[slapout]

Issan; not sure about Canadian Coops but the US has seen fewer number of cows produceing the allotment of milk given to individual dairy farmers. Wheat and other small grains are getting higher yields/acre thus production is going up with the same number of acres planted. This year there were many 65 bushel/acre yields on hard red winter wheat, whereas 50 years ago the average was 25 bu/acre. I am amazed to see the volume increases from the farms in North America which have come about with lower tillage, better feeding programs, willness to change, and probably most important going into a discussion or listening and or reading something with a open mind. Most of this has come about with the operational cost / unit decreasing. To many of us try to tell other people how to do something, question thieir ideas and methods without looking at the topic from all sides. I have noticed as I have gotten older most of the great ideas are coming from the young people who dont understand tradition or the fellow who says 'this works as this is what I found to work best' or worst those who discourge the younger, less experienced from giving a wild idea a try.