The Hindu - Myanmar exports over 90,000 tons of rice in two months

Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Hindu - Myanmar exports over 90,000 tons of rice in two months

YANGON (Xinhua): Myanmar has so far exported over 90, 000 tons of surplus rice in nearly two months' period up to this week since such export was re-granted in last November, six months after storm, sources with the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Application for exporting at least 15,000 tons of rice is promptly granted and the export goods is set to be shipped by ocean liners in place of containers.

Myanmar rice now fetches about 260 U.S. dollars per ton, up slightly from 220 dollars in last November, the sources said.

According to other earlier local report, since Myanmar granted free export of rice by local trading companies late last year, 3, 055 tons were exported by 9 companies through border points.

Meanwhile, the statistics of the Central Statistical Organization showed that, in the fiscal year 2007-08, Myanmar exported 358,500 tons of rice, gaining 100 million U.S. dollars. The export tonnage in the first three quarters (April-December) of 2008-09 went to 150,000 tons amid storm.

Of the rice export, 101,235 tons were shipped to South Africa, 11,908 tons to Singapore, 8,007.85 tons to Sri Lanka, 2,499.7 tons to the United Arab Emirate, 1,500 tons to South Korea and 1,197.7 tons to Egypt, according to the Myanmar Agricultural Produces Trading.

Myanmar government has urged agricultural entrepreneurs to make greater efforts for exporting more rice, saying that the country has enough cultivable land to boost paddy production. Out of 17.6 million hectares of cultivable land, only 11.6 million hectares of paddy or 65.9 percent could be grown, the authorities said.

The calendar year 2007 saw a production of 30 million tons of paddy out of 7.6 million hectares grown, but only about 20,000 tons of rice were exported.