Tapioca, Cassava & Starch

The starch chain runs from the cassava root to the paper machine and the food line, and four trades carry most of the enquiries. Dried cassava chips (HS 0714.10) are a bulk starch raw material bought by Chinese ethanol distillers and feed groups: Thailand's Department of Foreign Trade sheet for general chips is 70% minimum starch, 13% maximum moisture, 4% maximum fibre and 2% maximum sand, and China's 2024 imports were 2.47 million MT, 2.05 million MT of it from Thailand and 412,000 MT from Viet Nam. Native tapioca starch (HS 1108.14) is bought on moisture, whiteness, Brabender viscosity, pH and sulphite residue, with food grades at 10 mg/kg SO2 on common sheets; Thailand declared USD 1.62 billion and 3.16 million MT of exports in 2024, and Viet Nam, which declared 2.15 million MT in 2023, supplied 48.8% of China's cassava starch imports in the first five months of 2025. Modified starches (HS 3505.10, USD 4.29 billion in 2024, led by Thailand, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA) are bought by function: cationic and oxidised starches by paper mills, and E-numbered food starches such as E1404, E1420, E1422 and E1442, authorised under Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008, by food manufacturers. Native corn starch (HS 1108.12, USD 1.39 billion, led by India, the USA and Türkiye) and wheat starch (HS 1108.11, led by Germany, Australia, Lithuania and Poland) complete the range.

The buyers are fuel-ethanol and alcohol distillers, feed compounders, paper and corrugated-board mills, textile sizers, adhesive and glucose producers, and noodle, sauce, bakery and ready-meal manufacturers. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers the chain against SGS or Intertek inspection at loading for chips, and the mill's certificate of analysis, health or phytosanitary certificate and certificate of origin for starches, with halal, kosher and non-GMO statements where the producer holds them. Thailand enforces its chip moisture standard at the border, and suspended nine importers for over-moist chips between December 2025 and January 2026. Chips move in bulk on Handysize and Supramax vessels, and because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), freight is quoted with the cargo; starches move in 25 kg or 50 kg bags and 850 kg jumbo bags in 20-ft and 40-ft dry containers, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Minimum orders are confirmed per product and pack. Send the product, grade, key limits, tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.