Vietnam's cassava export to China soars

Vietnam exported some 4,000 tons of cassava starch to China through its northern Mong Cai border gate in March, up 50 percent over February, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Trade on Monday.

Now, local exporters find it hard to collect cassava starch to fulfill contracts signed with Chinese partners, since supplies in both northern and southern region of Vietnam are limited. Prices of local cassava starch are standing at around 2,050 yuan (246 US dollars) per ton, up from 1,960 yuan (235.2 dollars) per ton early this year.

The increasing prices are attributed to higher demand of such markets as China, Japan and some European countries, and thinner domestic supplies due to droughts. Vietnam's two cassava baskets, the Southeast and Central Highlands regions, are badly affected by the prolonged drought.

The central highlands province of Dac Nong alone houses three cassava starch plants with combined annual capacity of processing 500,000 tons of fresh cassava. However, they are now running at only 20 percent of their capacity, and facing bankruptcy.

Vietnam is expected to post export revenue of 3 billion dollars to China in 2005 and 5.5 billion dollars in 2010, with key items being crude oil, coal, rubber and cashew nuts. Their two-way trade stood at more than 6.7 billion dollars last year.