Myanmar expects rice exports to double

Jul 12, 2009, 7:14 GMT

   Yangon - Myanmar expects to double its exports of rice after the next harvest later this year, media reports said Sunday.

   'We plan to double the exports of surplus rice after the next major harvest season,' Aung Than Oo, president of the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders' Association, told the weekly Myanmar Times.

   He did specify the amount, but according to rice traders in Bangkok, Myanmar had already exported more than 500,000 tons of rice by mid-year, and was expected to export at least 1 million tons by the end of the year.

   Myanmar's main crop is harvested after the rainy season, which runs from May through October.

   Government regulations allow only rice deemed surplus to the nation's needs to be exported, to guarantee that domestic prices remain stable.

   According to association's statistics, the country's rice surplus in fiscal 2008-09, ending on March 31, was 700,000 tons and earned 201 million dollars. In fiscal 2007-08, Myanmar earned only 103 million dollars from rice exports.

   Myanmar managed a rice surplus and exports last fiscal year, even though the country's traditional rice basket, the Irrawaddy Delta, was hard hit by Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, destroying hundreds of hectares of farmland and claiming up to 140,000 lives.

   Tons of emergency food had to be imported from the international aid community to meet the needs of some 2 million people whose livelihoods were wiped out by the cyclone.

   Myanmar's main export markets for rice include Bangladesh, South Africa and the Ivory Coast.

   In the 2008-09 financial year, Africa bought 56 per cent of Myanmar's total rice exports, while 41 per cent went to the Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

    Although Myanmar's rice exports are on the rise this year, the price it fetches on the world market is below that of Thailand and Vietnam because of steep competition and poorer quality.

   'Our production costs in the agricultural sector are quite low, giving us room to compete with our overseas competitors but our issue lies with quality,' Aung Than Oo told the Myanmar Times.

   'If we want to get a solid hold in the international market we really need to put heavy emphasis on improving our quality,' he said.