Officials seek B1.4bn CMD fund

The Commerce Ministry will propose that the cabinet endorse 1.4 billion baht in funding to tackle a widespread disease threatening the tapioca crop.

Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, who chaired yesterday’s meeting of the cassava policy and management committee, said members agreed to ask the cabinet to consider and approve the budget to address the cassava mosaic disease (CMD) present in 26 provinces, up from 22 at the start of the year.

The funding scheme is scheduled to run from November 2020 to Sept 30, 2021.

According to Mr Jurin, the spread of CMD has caused damage to 326,274 rai of plantation area, with the hardest-hit spots in Nakhon Ratchasima, Sa Kaeo, Buri Ram and Prachin Buri.

The fresh funding will be offered as a loss compensation to affected farmers, he said.

The meeting assigned the Agricultural Extension Department to inform affected farmers to shift to using quality cassava varieties and avoid buying poorquality varieties touted by unscrupulous vendors.

Mr Jurin said he also ordered the Foreign Trade Department to tighten controls on imports of tapioca from neighbouring countries.

A total of 8 million rai of tapioca farmland exists in 50 provinces, with more than 600,000 families engaged in such farming.

Thailand’s overall tapioca production for the 2020-21 crop year is expected to stay below 20 million tonnes, compared with 20-22 million tonnes in the 201920 season.

Tapioca production usually stands at 28-30 million tonnes, with demand amounting to 40 million tonnes a year.

Last year Thailand saw tapioca product exports drop both in value and volume, with value down 16.4% at US$2.6 billion and volume down 20.4% at 6.6 million tonnes.

China is the biggest export market, followed by Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.

The Thai Tapioca Trade Association recently forecast tapioca product exports to drop below 2.4 million tonnes this year from 2.4 million, 3 million, 4 million and 6 million in the previous four years.

The price of fresh cassava root with 25% starch is now quoted at 2-2.55 baht per kilogramme, close to the state price guarantee of 2.50 baht per kg.