The export value of the global cassava industry in 2009 was estimated to be worth US$556M, an increase of 53% from 2008.

Demand has soared over recent months, largely due to demand from China, which uses the root to produce ethanol.

“The industry exported 158,000 tonnes of cassava and cassava-based products that brought in US$36M of income in December 2009,” said Nguyen Viet Chien from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for China.

Mainland China remained the biggest importer of Vietnamese cassava and accounted for 90% of the industry’s export income. South Korea and Taiwan were the second and third biggest importers.

Prices fell to a low of US$135/tonne at the beginning of 2009, but have since risen to between US$180-US$195/tonne.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam has 508,000ha of cassava under production. In the 2009 crop, 8.6M tonnes of cassava were harvested.