[ozthaisurprise]

Hello to all. I am from Melbourne Australia and have a Thai girlfriend. We have a new house in the mountains of Chaiyaphum Thailand. We hope to both move there in about 3 years time. In the meantime does anyone know the price of farm land in the area? land for either Rubber tress, pigs or rice. I have heard about 25,000 THB per RAI, is that correct?

 

[Song_Si]

Hi
My partner recently bought some land (Chanthaburi) and she spent a lot of time looking at the bank websites, both for actual properties for sale and for price indications for the areas she was looking at.

For example, this link for Kasikorn Property or Krung Sri Property you can search by province, type of property required.

This site lists the banks of Thailand - happy hunting!

Many of the major banks have similar sites though be warned, some are in Thai only.

A comment - I expect the land price will vary hugely between what is suitable for rubber (elevated) and what is suitable for rice (basically, flood-prone). Her family has 180 rai in Sa Kaeo province, doesn't flood but is not well drained enough to consider rubber, there are plantations on low hills about 5km away though that do well, same with palm oil trees. They focus on sugar, cassava, long-term eucalyptus, and the land that is suitable for rice is leased out on an annual cash in advance and percentage crop return basis (paid in sacks - want some rice?) - they let someone else worry about the rice, the returns are low at best there as can only crop once a year.

*****

Land in Thailand is measured in the standard unit of 1 Rai.
1Rai = 4 Ngan = 1600 Square Meters
1 Ngan = 100 Talang Wah = 400 SqM
1 Talang Wah = 4 SqM

Common Western Conversions:
1 Acre = 2.5 Rai
1 Hectare = 6.25 Rai

 

[ozthaisurprise]

Thank you so much for this info Song Si.

 

[ozthaisurprise]

So would Sugar, Cassava & long-term Eucalyptus trees be a better option than say Rice and Rubber trees, for making a living off the land?

 

[ozthaisurprise]

thanks, what about making a living off the land?

Thank you so much for this info Song Si.

So would Sugar, Cassava & long-term Eucalyptus trees be a better option than say Rice and Rubber trees, for making a living off the land?

 

[Song_Si]

hmmm - making a living off anything that relies on weather and market variations is a dodgy business.

I know nothing about the climate in Chaiyaphum - that's a good honest start.

Cassava has bombed this year - from a high of around 6b per kilo I think the current rate is about 1.70 to 1.80b per kilo. It is marginal whether harvesting it is even worthwhile this year, or just plough it in due to costs of labour, tractors etc. I am an observer and offer no advice (I don't know enough), my partner has land of her own, separate from main family farm, and the costs of land prep, ploughing, fertiliser, planting, periodical weed spraying . . . plus costs of harvest - tractor and labour she may just break even on 10 rai of cassava. They are furious (mildly!) that 2 weeks ago the govt re-opened the border to even cheaper Cambodian cassava.

Just my exp - eucalyptus are low return but low risk too (apart from fire), plant and forget for 4-5 years and sell (for paper pulp), the stumps are left to re-sprout and grow 2-3 stems which are harvested at 3-4 years, then stumps ripped out and start again. Returns will vary - soil and fertiliser make a difference Ive seen some pitifully skinny trees, sold by weight per tonne. 2yrs ago I planted a small trial plot on the farm, about 1km from main plantation; just 100 trees to see if they would do better with loving care and attention, they get fertilised every 3mths, been hand-pruned, and I even talk to them. Unsure what will happen long-term, now at 2yrs they are taller (up to 9.5m), better looking (kidding!) but not as sturdy as the farm-grown ones. Seems the extra effort and expense was wasted, they survive on the worst quality soil.

Again, my exp but the returns on rice are so low, hence their leasing the land out, it's low-lying and useless for anything else. Other land they lease out gets used for mushrooms and corn crops.

My partner's b-in-law manages the farm property, he's also a part-time farm advisor for local council and I trust his judgment, he has moved more towards sugar for 2012-14 but won't rely fully on one crop type, and will persist with some cassava and has several blocks of eucalyptus of various ages, of course if you can afford not to harvest them their value/tonnage will increase each year.

A few weeks ago you may have seen pineapples in the news, growers dumped 5 tonne on the highway in protest at low prices - there is a nationwide glut, market has dropped, they were getting 5b per kilo but now closer to zero as the canneries are oversupplied. Locally farmers are selling them from their trucks, roadside for 5 baht, or 5 for 20b. Desperate stuff they must be losing heavily.

Rubber - knowledge limited to their ideal sites/climate, and that they are labour intensive, need to find your own tappers, read stories of them ripping off landowners (one kg for you, one for me) - doesn't sound ideal to me unless you have exp family member who can be trusted. I think seven years till first latex is produced.

More reading - a Korat Cassava Protestor and Pineapples on the Highway and pictures and stories from my year on the farm in Sa Kaeo province if that doesn't put you to sleep nothing will.

cheers.

 

[Song_Si]

and again, re worth of property, around us here in Chanthaburi 1 million per rai is a common asking price, higher on the beachfront. Insane, but that's what they ask. The wealthiest farmers in the country - durian, mangosteen.

An old orchard near us is being subdivided for housing as trees are near the end of their useful lives - cut up into small sections available in multiples of 400 sqm (20mx20m) at 240,000b each.

there's money in fruit!

We can have our fruit, and eat it, too

11/04/2012

I spent the holidays visiting a friend growing fruit in Chanthaburi and I was amazed when he told me that he had just sold mangosteen at his orchard for 100 baht a kilogramme, a high price for consumers to spend on the so-called queen of fruit.

read more

 

[ozthaisurprise]

Thanks again for your help. cheers.

 

[TomC]

and again, re worth of property, around us here in Chanthaburi 1 million per rai is a common asking price, higher on the beachfront. Insane, but that's what they ask. The wealthiest farmers in the country - durian, mangosteen.

An old orchard near us is being subdivided for housing as trees are near the end of their useful lives - cut up into small sections available in multiples of 400 sqm (20mx20m) at 240,000b each.

there's money in fruit!

It's what I called Lotto Fruit. I think you can hit a jackpot and become rich if the fruit you have become popular due to some scientific discovery of super-antioxidant or becoming a fad in the west. I think Mangosteen is one such fruit. Several years ago, Pomegranate was all the rage. It's all about luck and timing because the locals will start to grow them if they find something that makes money. You can't get rich growing commodity fruit such as pineapple as there are so much competition. But with luck and the right fruit, it's Lotto Fruit. In the long run, I think the exotic fruits will only get more expensive as there are more people than available land to grow them. China for example, can consume all the fruits from Thailand. That's my guess.