Soth Korean National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (NACF) will acquire a tapioca processing plant in Indonesia at the cost of USD$12 million, as a way to supply the animal feed ingredient to domestic livestock farmers at an affordable price. Tapioca is a starch extracted from manioc or cassava.
In a press conference held at the government complex in Sejong City on April 21, President of the federation's livestock operations. Lee Ki-soo, said "At the earliest, we will finalize the acquisition of the plant by June this year and expand it to a 50,000-ton-a-year processing facility." This is the first time NACF purchases an overseas animal feed plant.
The federation is currently importing 250,000 tons of tapioca, of which about 20 percent would be supplied by the Indonesian plant. Lee added, "The plant will be able to supply tapioca at prices about 30 percent lower than the current average import price. By 2016, we will bring up the import ratio from the Indonesian operation to 35 percent so that the tapioca prices can be stabilized."
