I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about contract farming, in Thailand and other countries. One interesting case that I came across was that of baby corn. In a report published almost 20 years ago veteran journalist and activist Sanitsuda Ekachai wrote about the fate of Thai peasants who had been caught up in this particular form of contract farming:
A one rai plot of land grows 30,000 corn plants. [Really? That's about 19 plants per square metre. Pretty crowded!] That means 30,000 tassels to strip and each plant bears three cobs, so that’s 90,000 baby corns to peel off… At home the family will gather round the piles of fresh, green corns to slit the husks with a knife, remove the corn silk and pull out the prized, pearl white vegetable they have worked to hard for – a finger sized corn, perfect for canning. To meet the factory deadline, it is not uncommon for the family to husk the cop until well after midnight before going out before dawn for another day’s work in the fields. [I've taken this Sanitsuda quote from an article by David Burch in Globlization and Agri-Food Restructuring 1996.]
For this hard work the farmers were reported to receive only about 14 baht per day. Another source suggests about 16 baht per day. [Citing Burch again.]
A more recent source also suggests that returns from baby corn are relatively modest. This is from foodmarketexchange.com:
Baby corn is an important commercial plant and export item of Thailand. Baby corn fresh, frozen and canned becomes more and more popular both in Thailand and abroad. It earns the country more than 1 billion baht each year. With a short period of cultivation, only 45-60 days, farmers can reap the crop and fetch 2,000-3,000 baht per rai. Also, there are few pests to disturb the plant. Moreover, parts of baby corn trees after harvests can be used as animal feed, especially for meat and milk cows. In the global trade frame, Thailand is estimated to account for 80 percent of the world trade volume of baby corn. In 2000, Thailand exported fresh baby corn to approximately 30 countries, and preserved baby corn products to almost 100 countries. In 2000,Thailand dominated the world baby corn trade with both fresh and canned products, thus having earned 1,731,942,373 baht from the export volume of 58,536,378 kilograms. The U.S. is Thailand’s largest export market for canned baby corn, accounting for 42.75 percent of Thailand’s total export volume and value of baby corn. As for fresh baby corn markets, Malaysia is the biggest importing countries with the share of around 50.70 percent of the export volume.
3000 baht after 60 days is 50 baht per day from one rai. Still seems to be a rather modest return given the labour involved. How many rai of baby corn can a farmer reasonably manage?
Perhaps there is a New Mandala reader out there with some insight into the economics of baby corn cultivation. Baby corn has become a significant export crop for Thailand so there must be something that makes it attractive for farmers to grow.
6 responses so far ↓
1 nganadeeleg // Jun 30, 2009 at 8:49 pm
I know nothing about the financial aspects of growing that or any other crop, but I would also be interested to know about the respective relative proportions of the final sale price that is recieved by the middlemen, processors, exporters, importers etc , and how that compares to the farmers/labourers share, and how that compares to other crops in Thailand, and to the situation in other exporting nations.
Some quick summary numbers would be interesting, if you have them handy.
2 Jean-Philippe Leblond // Jul 1, 2009 at 1:12 am
Assuming 5 crops per year, the 2000-3000B/rai/crop = 2500*5 = 12 500B/rai/year , which about the same level as that reported in Thippawal Srijantr ’s case study in the Mae Klong area c 1997 (not contract farming however).
I thought I had a copy of his thesis but can’t find it. Anyways, in “Profitability and yield gap of sugar cane cultivation in the Mae Klong region” (http://std.cpc.ku.ac.th/delta/deltacp/pubs/sugarcane.PDF ) he says ” Comparing the annual income with other crops and animal productions, it was found that sugar cane yielded less than double rice crops (2,600 baht per rai per year with sell price of 1997 : 3,400 baht/ton ; since then, prices have fluctuated between 5,000 and 8,000 baht/rai), but three times less than baby corn production and five times less than raising diary cows is association with baby corn (Srijantr,
1998). ” p. 3
If we use 5000B /yr as a mean profitability of sugar cane: 5000 *3 = 15000B/rai/year for baby corn.
You’re right that 50B/day is low compared to the min wage of 150B or more. On the other hand, it is much better than what I’ve seen in upland conditions, namely risking loosing 20 000+ B /year in feed maize production, a debt that is all but impossible to reimburse for the typical family without getting wage revenues.
I wonder how many crops aside from rubber can get you a reliable income greater than the minimum wage in Thailand. Outside irrigated areas, my guess is none.
3 John Hawkins // Jul 1, 2009 at 1:54 am
A few months ago there was a story on Thai TV news regarding the plight of corn farmers who had been left with a glut of harvested product but no buyer. It seems that the usual Thai buyers had contracted to buy this year’s harvests from Myanmar instead! Furthermore, this latter arrangement had been set up by a past Minister for Agriculture during her term in Mr. Thaksin’s first government.
I have not seen this in English anywhere; my wife helped me to understand the story when it aired on the news.
Does anyone have any further information on this?
4 antipadshist // Jul 1, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I second nganadeeleg
I’d also like to know the answers to questions he raised
interesting post.
perhaps eventually some academics or invesstigative journalists would make some study of all such matters – how much actually all the middlemen take.
note the recent article (on Bkk Post?) that now rice exporters give pressure to Abhisit.
5 Benchaphun Ekasingh // Jul 5, 2009 at 8:34 pm
We have done studies on farmers’ conditions in a small watershed called Mae Tha in Lamphun in 2008 and found that growing baby corn was considered by farmers one of their best cash crops in the past 10 years or so. It has reliable market, stable prices, low pests and disease, easy to grow, short duration (45 days) and crop residue can be sold and used in dairy farming. They can grow 3 crops in the rainy season, another 3 crops in the dry season, getting a net income of 2500 baht per rai (comparable to other crops). Most farmers would have around 1 ha of land, about half being paddy land. Some farmers would get more profit if they would go organic. Labour inputs are around 28 mandays per crop per rai (around 80-90 baht per man day but can be 200+ if they grow organic baby corn). Nevertheless, increasing fertilizer costs together with stagnant prices of the output are eroding the profitability of the crop.
I hope this helps you, Andrew.
6 Benchaphun Ekasingh // Jul 5, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Just to clarify. The 2500 baht is per crop per rai. This does not seem a lot but this already takes into account the labor costs of peeling the husk– a process which creates a lot of employment and income in the villages–as it is done by kg at 1.50-2.00 baht a kg of peeled baby corn. Some workers earn 200 baht a day peeling the baby corn.
Leave a Comment
Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.