Agriculture
Agricultural commodities, processing and products
UN: Poverty, conflict drive opium production in Myanmar-Laos
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s latest opium survey for Myanmar and Laos, released 15 December, said poverty and conflict are the driving forces behind poppy cultivation, the second largest behind that of Afghanistan. In its latest production assessment, UNDOC said although Southeast Asia’s opium ...
First batch of Lao rice exported to China
Laos on 10 December officially exported its first batch of rice to China, marking the start of rice exportation to China. A ceremony on the event was held in Laos’ southern Savannakhet Province on 10 December. Addressing the ceremony, Lao Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Phet Phomphiphak said ...
Dirty greens: Why some southern farmers refuse to eat the water spinach they grow
A man takes a big bowl of waste vehicle oil from a bucket and splash the thick black liquid directly onto his water spinach field. Some of his farming neighbors in Thuong Xuan Ward in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City are showed doing the same in a ...
Nghe An culls thousands of chickens to prevent bird flu outbreak
Health authorities in the central province of Nghe An have culled more than 2,365 chicken after many of them were found infected with two dangerous strains of bird flu. Keep reading ...
Opium poppy farmers seek help to end dependence
It is harvest time in the shadow of mist-covered mountains in southern Shan State – not for the rice or pulses growing elsewhere, but in the fields that will supply heroin to voracious markets, in Myanmar and across international borders. Down in the valleys and on ...
China signs rice, rubber deals with Thailand
China has signed rice and rubber purchase deals with Thailand as part of the Thai-Sino railway development agreement. Negotiations over the railway are continuing. The deals were signed at the ninth meeting of the Joint Committee on Railway Cooperation in Bangkok on 3 December. Keep reading ...
Cheapest Thai fragrant rice for six years
The global price of Hom Mali fragrant rice has dropped to the lowest in six years as growers sell their grain direct to millers-cum-exporters instead of joining a state-run bank’s scheme to increase rice prices. Keep reading ...
Vietnam coffee industry in trouble as prices plunge
Despite efforts to reduce costs and increase yields, Vietnam’s coffee exports have faced a difficult year, delegates heard at a seminar in Ho Chi Minh City on 2 December. “The international coffee market has seen unexpected trends and seriously impacted Vietnamese exports,” Deputy Minister of Agriculture ...
Migrants processing Thai chicken exports abused, exploited— Researchers
Migrants processing Thai chicken for its biggest export market, Europe, face widespread abuse by their employers, partly because foreign auditors have focused on food safety rather than workers’ conditions, researchers said on 25 November. Chicken is set to become the world’s most consumed meat, within the ...
Low yields sour Savannakhet sugarcane farmers' prospects
Some individual sugarcane growers in Savannakhet province now owe the milling company as much as 174 million kip following their poor harvests, it was recently revealed. According to a workshop on reducing debt risks for farmers in Vientiane, some families in Savannakhet’s Xaybouly district are in ...
