Mizzima

The research organizations which monitor commodity prices said that the Asian countries which produce 90 per cent of world rice production were struggling to maintain normal rice production this year.

The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) recently announced that they would suspend rice export for about one and half months to contain the rising price in the domestic market.

Under the recent junta’s restriction, the traders could not store more than 20,000 baskets (approx. 46 lbs) of paddy or worth about 200 million Kyat so that some predicted that the Military Council would take action against the illegal rice and paddy trading out of their control and monitoring.

This restriction might lower the rice prices in the market but the producers in the lower strata will face the problem of the rice price not covering their production costs.

The In-charge of All Burma Farmers’ Union, Ayeyarwady Region said that the production costs for monsoon paddy was varying between 500,000 to 600,000 Kyat per acre this year and it rose by nearly 50 per cent of rice product last year.

Similarly, the Chairman of All Rakhine State Farmers’ Union said Cyclone Mocha and subsequent floods caused declining monsoon paddy acreage this year and it could affect food security in the Rakhine State.

Recent floods that occurred last month damaged over 70,000 acres of paddy fields and the farmers had to spend over 100,000 Kyat per bag for fertilizer. Farmers had to spend more to cover bigger production costs in their farming.

While there is lowering monsoon paddy acreage and declining per acre yield the traders might buy paddy by giving competitive prices as they have the export potential. So the Chairman of All Rakhine State Farmers’ Union warned that the rice price would surge significantly in the coming harvesting time of monsoon paddy.

After the export ban of rice by the world’s largest rice exporter India in recent months, the supply of rice in the global market fell by about one fifth.

Similarly, Myanmar which is the fifth largest rice exporter in the world with over 2 million tonnes annually also decided to suspend rice export for 45 days.

In the meantime, the Philippines and Indonesia are eager to buy more rice. The Indonesia BULOG Public Corporation (logistics bureau) said that they were trying to import rice from Myanmar and Cambodia.

The Thai authorities suggested to their farmers to lower the rice acreage this season to save water resources. Currently the rice prices are soaring in all of these countries.