20 October
ALTHOUGH India is buying My-anmar beans to meet domestic demand, the prices it is offering are low, said U Min Ko Oo, the secretary of the Myanmar Puls-es, Beans, and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association.
“India, the main buyer of Myanmar beans and pulses, has announced an import quota of 150,000 tons for mung beans this year. With the demand for mung beans from India rising during their bean production season, India is purchasing more Myan-mar beans to meet the needs of the market. However, the orders to buy mung beans have to be made with the permission of the Indian government,” he added.
“Despite the high demand, India is purchasing Myanmar beans only at low prices. We found that bean farming in some states of India has been adversely affected by flooding and torrential rains.
In this regard, India has already announced an import quota of 150,000 tons for mung beans. Now, in October, their import quota system has been India buying Myanmar beans at low price despite high demand FDI likely to increase in current fiscal, especially in offshore oil blocks: Ministershore oil blocks and minerals,” said U Thaung Tun.“The Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations is inviting investors to conduct business in a responsible and ac-countable manner. If those busi-nesses enter Myanmar, it would be beneficial for our country. We are already implementing the Myanmar Investment Promotion Plan (MIPP), which was drawn with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agen-cy (JICA),” he added. Under the MIPP, the country has set a target of attracting over $200 billion in FDI within the next 20 years, said U Thaung Tun.“Moreover, the Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Ministry is working to update the policy. So, Myanmar’s economic sector will develop significantly in the next fiscal,” he added. According to an ADB report released a few days ago, Myan-mar expects GDP to grow by 6.6 per cent next year. The World Bank has forecast a growth of 6.8 per cent. The Myanmar Invest-ment Commission is targeting $5.8 billion in FDI in the 2019-2020FY. Although the MIC had set an FDI target of $5.8 billion in the 2018-2019FY, but only $4.5 billion came in, less than a billion dollars.During the period from 1988 to the end of September, 2019, around 1,837 foreign enterpris-es from 50 countries around the world were permitted to invest a total of $81.8 billion in 12 sectors. The countries with the highest investment rates are Singapore, China, and Thailand, and they largely flowed into oil and gas, electricity, and manufacturing sectors. Myanmar received $9.4 bil-lion in foreign direct investment in the 2015-2016FY, $6.6 billion in the 2016-2017FY, and $5.7 billion in the 2017-2018 FY. (Translated by Hay Mar) suspended, and they have in-vited merchants to submit or-ders to buy mung beans with the permission of the Indian government. They are pur-chasing mung beans like last year. When India is in need of beans, it changes its policy. Last year, India was faced with the same problem. Anyway, the price of Myanmar beans has increased in the local market. But, the price of beans in the Indian market has decreased by US$250 per ton compared to the Myanmar market,” said U Min Ko Oo.
“While the price of beans has increased to $650 per ton in Myanmar, the price is over $800 in the Indian bean market. India is used to changing its policy when they need the beans to import into their country. If they still purchase under the import quota system, our country will suffer losses in trade because we will not get a fair price,” he said.
In order to prevent losses to local farmers because of the unreliable and unpredictable policy of India, the government had requested that India pur-chase Myanmar beans through the government-to- government channel. However, India has not made any response yet. India is only purchasing Myanmar beans under the import quota system, he added. If India is still practicing the quota sys-tem, Myanmar, which mainly imports beans to India, needs to be careful in bean production, according to the Myanmar Puls-es, Beans, and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association.
“The association and the government cannot say which bean should be grown and which should not. We can only explain the real situation,” said U Min Ko Oo.
Currently, new mung beans are fetching over K100,000 per ton in the local market.
By Nyein Nyein (Trans-lated by Hay Mar)
