Mizzima News

The Burmese military junta has halted rice export to China. The Northeast regional command commander summoned local Peace and Development Council (PDC) Chairman and leaders of people's militia from Muse and Namkhan Townships on May 31 and communicated the decision.

The local leaders of Muse and Namkhan were summoned to the regional command headquarters in Lashio by Commander Maj. Gen. Aung Than Htut.

"The issue on the agenda was rice. There would be no smuggling of rice to China and all smugglers would be arrested. He also he said that all new crops must be sold to the government as there will be a shortfall in rice production this year as a fallout of Cyclone Nargis," a family member of a local PDC official told Mizzima.

Another local resident from Namkhan said that Northeast Command Commander Aung Than Htut visited Namkhan in person on May 28 and issued the directives to the Township PDC Chairman U Tin Hlaing. After that he summoned all village level PDC Chairman and people's militia to Lashio and held a meeting.

During the meeting, the regional commander said there would be no export and smuggling of rice to China in the coming monsoon. All smugglers will be punished with 10 years in prison and confiscation of paddy and hand-tractor trailers used in smuggling.

Similarly the Shan State Farm Produce Marketing Corporation Director will hold a meeting today with rice merchants and rice millers from Mabein Township which is a major rice producing area in Shweli basin of Shan State, a rice merchant in Mabein said.

"The meeting will be held today and will be attended by Deputy Director of Farm Produce Marketing Corporation. The rice merchants and rice millers have been called to the meeting," he said.

A rice merchant from Muse said that the ban on rice export is not new and it is always banned in this border area. The amount of rice smuggled to China is not much, he said.

"The rice enters China only through smuggling routes and rice export has never been allowed through official trade routes here. The Chinese people do not consume Burmese rice. It is consumed only by Burmese people living on the Sino-Burma border in Shweli and Jie Gong. The amount being smuggled is negligible," he said.

In the light of likely rice shortage this season after Cyclone Nargis destroyed paddy fields, seeds and killed cattle in major rice producing areas, the local authorities in Shan State (North) are applying pressure on farmers to grow monsoon season rice and forcibly selling 'Sinshweli' rice seeds to farmers. But the local farmers in Muse and Shweli are unhappy getting these seeds as they have been stored for a long time.

Though petty rice traders face restriction in border areas, the cronies of the regime are being permitted to export several tons of rice to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, it is learnt.