Export Cassava to Thailand, Says Ministry

Cambodia’s cassava growers have been asked to target Thailand as an export market due to the high demand for the starch-tuber in the neighboring country to produce ethanol, animal feed and flour, while little is done at home to stabilize prices and provide assistance to add value to their unprocessed harvests. Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak in a meeting recently made a call to cassava growers in the country to boost their exports to Thailand due to the lack of factories in the Kingdom to process harvested cassava into flour and other products.

Soeung Sophary, spokesperson at the Ministry of Commerce, said yesterday Thailand remained one of the biggest markets for the country’s cassava exports. “Besides Thailand, we also export to other countries like China, but Thailand has been our market for cassava for a long time,” said Ms. Sophary. “There is a high demand for unprocessed cassava from Cambodia in Thailand right now.”

The ministry will discuss with companies in Thailand to keep the buying price, of unprocessed cassava from Cambodia, stable, said Ms. Sophary. “This will certainly help our cassava growers,” she said. Ms. Sophary said prices were unstable because Thai factories bought the unprocessed cassava directly from farms owned by individuals or families in Cambodia rather than from a collective group or the Cambodia Cassava Development Association.

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