Myanmar rice traders say the price of rice abruptly rose in the last week of January this year after being stable for few months since the harvesting of new crops. 

The price of rice rose abruptly because of lowering stock, rising transport costs and rising commodity prices. 

The price of paddy reached a record high of 1.6 million kyat per 100 baskets (one basket = 46 lbs) and the rice traders said that the price of rice also rose starting from the beginning of this year. 

The rice traders assume that the production in coming summer and monsoon seasons will be low and then they hoarded paddy and rice as much as they could and then the price of paddy reached record high price since the yield of paddy was too low in the hands of farmers and the demand was high in the market. 

The traders predict that the paddy yield and production will be drastically low as lower paddy acreage in the country due to the unrest in some paddy-growing regions and the soaring input costs in the farming. So, the traders bought the paddy by visiting the paddy fields at the price of 1.6 million per 100 baskets, 500,000 kyats more than the usual price. 

The price of good quality paddy was nearly 1.6 million kyat in the first week of January and it rose to nearly 1.8 million kyat in the last week of January. Similarly, the price of low-quality paddy rose to 1.6 million kyats from 1.3 million kyats during this period. 

A rice mill owner said that the price rise was caused by the lowering stocks of paddy in the country and also some rice merchants raised the price to a higher level by their price speculation in the market. 

The rise of rice prices was reportedly caused by long and frequent power outages after the coup, the rising costs of fuel, transportation, and production. 

Mon State has nearly 700,000 acres of paddy acreage and yearly production is over 34,000,000 baskets. The paddy is milled in the State and distributed to other States and Regions. 

The people are struggling to cope with the soaring price rise of rice to nearly two-fold after the coup.