September 08, 2020
The price of black bean on 7 September plummeted to K919,000 per tonne, which is a decrease of K30,000 compared with the price in the previous week, according to bean market data.
The black bean fetched K950,000 per tonne on 1 September.
Nevertheless, the pigeon pea price is stable at K815,000 per tonne.
India, the leading buyer of Myanmar’s black bean and pigeon peas, has been delaying to buy the beans amid the COVID-19 crisis, regardless of requirement in its supply, the traders said.
On 22 May, India rapidly changed the import period of black bean to three months by August-end 2020 from the earlier set deadline of March 2021, as per their official notice.
Although the bean body asked to extend the August-end deadline, India still has not responded to the request.
At present, Myanmar has exported about 100,000 tonnes of black beans out of 400,000 tonnes to India.
With the changes in India’s policy on bean importation, Myanmar still falls short of the target, and it has stockpiled around 200,000 tonnes of black beans, Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association stated.
Myanmar is the top producing country of black bean that India demands. Besides Myanmar, other beans such as pigeon peas, green grams and yellow peas, are also grown in Australia and Africa, the association stated.(Translated by Ei Myat Mon)
