The data on the spread of Guatemalan corn is not clear, but Behrman
concludes that "the only available estimates on the national level
suggest that Guatemalan flint yields 300 to 350 kg per rai [ I rai is
equivalent to 0.4 acres ] as compared with 200 to 250 kg per rai from
pakchong dent and that by the early 1960s, as much as 60 to 85% of
total corn production was Guatemalan."
The year 1958 saw the start of a corn boom . From the 1 percent
level of 1957, Thai corn export jumped to 2.8 percent of export
earnings in 1958 and 8.6 percent by 1963, while the volume rose
nearly twelve-fold .A large fraction of these export wass Guatemalan
corn. Besides the development of an acceptable variety, two other
factors contributed to Thailand is ability to respond to the growth in
japanese maize demand during these years; improvement in road
transport and the reduction in malaria, which opened up previously
uncultivated areas that were now put into corn production."