STC GROUP

PRODUCTS / BUSINESS

ABOUT TAPIOCA

Tapioca was firstly originated from countries in Southern American such as Peru, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. It was believed that Peru and Mexico had been growing tapioca for the past 4,000 and 2,100 years respectively. Around the 17th century, Portugal and Spanish had brought tapioca to a few Asian countries namely India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Malaysia. There was no concrete evidence to prove when was tapioca introduced into Thailand, but believed to be around the same period as Sri Lanka and Philippines during 1786-1840.

Tapioca was first grown in the Southern part of Thailand and was not successful due to land raining season. Before World War II, tapioca was grown as inter-crop in most rubber plantations in the Southern Thailand. However, after World War II, tapioca plantation was moved to the Eastern part of Thailand as rubber plantation proved to be a better revenue earner than tapioca. In 1961, tapioca plantation in the Eastern part of Thailand constituted 85.58% of the country's total tapioca acreage.

However, in the late 50's and early 60's, the by-product of starch extraction was found as a valuable constituent for feed production and processed market potential in the EU countries. Realizing the value and increasing markets of the paste by-products, Thailand started the production on tapioca chips in 1958.

During 1967-1968, in an attempt to reduce transportation costs of chips, pellet production technology was introduced. Pelletizing tapioca helped reduce space requirement for transportation and also save transportation cost.

With the increased demand for tapioca pellets in EU, Thailand's tapioca plantation was expanded and it was extended further to the Northeast. In 1990, approximately 63% of Thailand's tapioca production was from the Northeast and 22.1% from the East. The production output jumped from 1.7 million tons in 1961 to 20.5 million tons in 1990. In 1999, Thailand's annual tapioca roots production was 15.8 million tons.

Approximately 70% of the tapioca roots is used in the process of tapioca industries producing tapioca fibers and pellets while the remaining 30% is used for flour and starch production.

TAPIOCA CHIPS

Right after the harvest, fresh roots are transported to chip-drying yards. In making chips, the roots are chopped into small pieces and sundried on concrete floor for 2 to 3 days until the 65% moisture content is reduced to about 16% to 18% by weight. The chipping process is mainly designed to reduce the size of the roots, to shorten drying time and to make transport easier after drying. To produce 1 ton of tapioca chips needs about 2.2 to 2.5 tons of original roots.

TAPIOCA HARD PELLETS

Tapioca is recognized in EU countries as a feed ingredient for more than 45 years. The two main reasons for the use of tapioca by the feed industry are:

the price difference between tapioca and other high-energy feedstuffs such as corn and wheat
the availability throughout the year

Due to the high transportation cost in form of tapioca chips, the pelletizing technology was then brought in to achieve the lower storage factor and as a result, the lower freight cost.

Tapioca hard pellets delivered to EU are mainly used in the swine feeds as source of high energy by mixing with soy meal at the ratio of 85% tapioca hard pellet and 15% soy meal resulting an equivalent nutritive value of corn.

The quality of tapioca hard pellets is under the control of the Thai Industrial Standards Institute of Ministry of Industry

The standard specifications of tapioca hard pellets are as follows:

Raw Fibre:	5% max.
Sand:	3% max.
Moisture:	14% max.
Hardness:	12 kg force per Kahl hardness tester
Meal:	8% max. (1 mm sieve)
Starch :	65% (By ECC method)
Foreign material:	Nil

TAPIOCA STARCH

Due to its natural properties and qualities, tapioca starch has broadly been used by both food and non-food industries.

FOOD INDUSTRIES:-
GLUCOSE INDUSTRY, SEASONING POWER INDUSTRY, MEDICAL INDUSTRY

NON-FOOD INDUSTRIES:-
PAPER INDUSTRY, TEXTILE INDUSTRY, PLYWOOD INDUSTRY, GLUE INDUSTRY AND ALCOHOL INDUSTRY

General Specification of Tapioca Starch
Starch Content 85 % min.
Moisture Content 13 % max.
Whiteness 90 % min.
Vicosity 550 BU min.

STC WORLD TRADE CO., LTD. is responsible for providing the good quality of tapioca starch in every shipment to customers. To customize our products as per customer's needs and satisfaction is our primary concern.

LOGISTIC SERVICES

To ensure the on-schedule delivery of tapioca chips and tapioca hard pellets into customer's hand, our group provides logistic services including loading facilities, fleet of lighters and shipping services.

STC Tapioca Group Co., Ltd. owns 2 floating elevators with loading capacity of 24,000 metric tons per day which enable to function the loading into the ocean-going vessel ranging from 10,000 to 120,000 metric tons at the deep-sea anchorage of Koh Sichang in the Gulf of Thailand.

Palangmit Transport Co., Ltd. operates a fleet of more than 60 lighters with a total tonnage of over 55,000 tons for transporting the cargoes from warehouse to bulk carriers.

Marita Marine Co., Ltd. provides chartering, agency services, brokering and managing freighters for facilitating the buyers around the world.