Blog Post #34 - Field Visit to the Land of Khao Kai Noy

After a whirlwind two-weeks of travel for work, I am finally back at the office in Vientiane. Back to the busy streets, back to the heat, back to the smiles around the office.

This past week myself and the team visited Xiengkhouang Province in northern Laos. We were there to interview over 15 Khao Kai Noy farmers, test KKN quality across various districts, collect samples to distribute in North America, and meet with potential partners, including millers, seed distributors and institutional customers.

Meeting with the team at the start of the week to outline trip objectives and finalize logistics

The first interview!
(always facilitated with a translator because my Lao is nowhere near ready for technical talk)

The farmers were always so pleased to meet with us,
giving us a warm welcome and post-interview meal / drink sendoff

As the dry season comes to an end in May, and planting begins in June and July, we must identify the strongest KKN farmers working through SAEDA. International customers demand top quality, and historically farmers in the region have not been incentivized to make improvements. The rice is tasty enough for personal consumption, and for surplus KKN available for commercial sale, traders typically just perform visual inspections and then mix all purchases together.

Prepping our moisture meter for quality tests.
Moisture % is an important indicator because if it is too high, the rice will spoil over long transport journeys.
High moisture also prevents proper milling

So proud to show off his "Good Farmer Award," received from the President of Lao PDR
Definitely deserved! He is such a nice guy.
We have met multiple times in Xiengkhouang and Vientiane over the past 5 months

We have collected a lot of great primary data to frame our final recommendations for LOPA business plans. The samples of both KKN and a sticky black rice (that we previously knew very little about), will be crucial to generate interest among Western buyers. We have also narrowed down the list of farmers LOPA will likely purchase harvest from in November / December.

You may recognize this farm from my first field visit to Xiengkhouang

Our translator (a Cuso Intern) did an awesome job keeping up with the conversation

Nothing was growing at the time of our visit,
but there was no shortage of beautiful landscape views

We did interview many female farmers,
but there is still evidence of some gender inequality in decision making

In addition to the farmers, there were many other important value chain partners that we needed to meet.

Probably a good idea to meet with the government if our objective is to export

Good quality, homogeneous seed is very important for achieving top quality final KKN product

Checking capacity and quality at a local rice mill

Met with local rice traders to understand the domestic market

The black rice in this photo is also very glutinous and sticky like KKN.
It is rarely grown because it is only used locally for dessert and alcohol making.
We think 'health conscious' Western customers will fall in love with it

Temperatures actually dropped to 9C our first evening there. I was uncomfortably cold and slept in all my clothes. Fortunately it warmed up later in the week. How will I survive my first winter back in Canada?! But no need to worry now, just enjoy some of my favourite shots from the week.

No shortage of fun when there are three straws (home brew KKN whiskey....better known as Lao Lao)

His fate was inevitable....and so delicious

Dreaming of a future sticky rice empire

I felt like I was being watched at this rice mill

Using an old American cluster bomb to BBQ at a party

We met many ethnic minorities living in the highland areas

A beautiful kitchen in the countryside. Nothing like back home but that's what made it so amazing

FaceTime with the family in Calgary <3

Quite far from home, but spitting distance from Vietnam
(those mountains are the border)

One month left in Laos before heading to India for the next adventure!