Cassava industry demands reopening of polluting plant

Farmers and brokers say that unless the bio-ethanol factory resumes operations soon, they will lose thousands of dollars.

CASSAVA farmers and brokers have urged the owners of a bio-ethanol factory closed Monday to overhaul its wastewater-treatment systems and resume production as quickly as possible as Thai buyers moved Tuesday to force down prices.

Pheng Se, 26, a cassava broker from Kampong Thom province, said he sold 6,500 tonnes of dried cassava to the South Korean-owned MH Bio-Energy Group in late July for US$118 per tonne and was preparing to deliver a 3,000-tonne shipment at $116 per tonne when the factory was shuttered after complaints by local villagers that toxic waste from the facility was killing tens of thousands of fish in nearby waterways.

"I will lose $348,000 if the suspension of MH Bio-Energy Group continues to until next month, because there is no-one else to buy [the cassava]," he said. Click to read more...