Back in Business…
After a long period of being locked down, we’re going on another Crop Tour. This time, we’ll be exploring Thailand’s Lower Northeast (Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram and Chaiyaphum).
Over three days, we plan to visit three mills and meet some of the farmers in each area. We’ll also visit a few of cassava factories.
Although this may not sound as busy as some of my other tours, it’ll still involve 20 hours of driving, covering 1,000km.
Unfortunately, we tried to hire an SUV, but they were fully booked, so we’re back in the Sedan. Let’s hope we avoid any emergency trips to the garage this time around…
Goals for the Trip…
From the trip, we hope to hear how things are looking for the 2021/22 cane crush, which should be underway by the time we arrive. We should also catch a few farmers planting cane for the 2022/23 season, giving us a good opportunity to understand why they’ve decided to plant cane and not cassava.
In addition, we hope to come away with a forecast for Thai cane production in 2022/23 by learning more about:
- The cane area.
- Crop competition.
- Agricultural yields.
- The cost of production.
- The farmers’ planting decisions.
- Any other issues the mills and farmers could face.
There are therefore some key questions that we need to ask:
- What’s the impact of Thailand’s burnt cane cutting policy?
- How will the global energy rally affect the cost of cane production?
- What are the farmers’ thoughts on the provisional cane price of 1,070 THB/mt for 2021/22?
- What will encourage the farmers to plant either cane or cassava in the future?
Other Insights That May Be of Interest…
The First Week of Our Thai Cane Tour (In Pictures)
The Second Week of Our Thai Cane Tour (In Pictures)
Our Colombian Road Trip (In Pictures)
