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Published on April 29, 2008

The Nation

Deputy Agriculture Minister Theerachai Saenkaew told a seminar entitled "Fuel Crops and Thailand's Economic Future" that within four years, sugar-cane yields would be raised from 9 tonnes per rai to 13 tonnes, while those of tapioca would be doubled, from 3.5 tonnes per rai to 7 tonnes.

The yields will be raised because the plantation areas of the two crops - which are required for ethanol production and other purposes - are expected to remain unchanged.

Theerachai said the ministry would also expand the area in Thailand under oil-palm plantations, a project supported by a Bt30-billion financial package from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives and the Energy Ministry. A survey team is already working to find favourable locations. Old and exhausted rubber trees are due to be cleared from 2 million rai of rubber plantations, and some of this area could be turned into oil-palm plantations.

"There is a limited area for successful [oil] palm plantations. It must be near water sources, and this covers the South and the Northeast, near the Mekong River," he said.

Theerachai said the Agriculture Ministry would propose that the Food and Energy Management Committee adjust ethanol prices upwards, in order to encourage production, because the price was currently about Bt16 per litre, compared with the crude-oil price of Bt23 to Bt24 a litre.

Thailand is capable of producing 1.3 million litres of ethanol a day against daily consumption of 700,000 litres, he said. The Excise Department is revising its export taxes, because ethanol is currently in the same category as alcohol products.

Theerachai said that at a time when the strength of the baht was pushing export values down, the ministry would encourage the use of excessive supplies of sugar and tapioca in ethanol manufacturing. At present, these excesses amount to 5 million tonnes of sugar a year and 19 million tonnes of tapioca.