7 July

THE  supervisory  committee  on the exportation of Myanmar rice  to  China  has  made  its  fi-nal selection of 79 rice mills out of  103  owned  by  42  companies,  according to a press statement released by the Myanmar Rice Federation.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MOA-LI)  will  continue  to  carry  out  SPS Protocol (Sanitary and Phy-tosanitary  Protocol),  reported  the press.

According to Article 3 of the SPS Protocol, inspection of rice exporters and rice mills is man-datory, which is in keeping with the  criteria  set  by  the  General  Administration of Customs Chi-na (GACC).

The  Myanmar  Rice  Feder-ation and China’s stated-owned food  processing  holding  com-pany,  China  National  Cereals,  Oils, and Foodstuffs Corporation (COFCO), have signed a Memo-randum of Understanding for the export of 100,000 tons of Myan-mar rice through the maritime route on 20 June in Beijing, ac-cording  to  U  Ye  Min  Aung,  the  President of the MRF.

The MoU will help distribute information on Myanmar’s rice market to COFCO and assist in the selling of Myanmar rice, ac-cording to the MRF.

COFCO has negotiated with 11 Myanmar companies selected for rice trade. At present, trade will  be  conducted  by  those  11  companies.  The  Myanmar  In-spection  and  Testing  Services  Ltd  (MITS),  the  authorized  inspection  enterprise  of  the  gov-ernment, has conducted inspec-tions  at  local  rice  companies.  And, companies selected in line with  the  prescribed  rules  and  regulations will carry out exports if the Chinese authority agrees, said U Ye Min Aung.

After a meeting between for-mer president U Thein Sein and the Chinese Premier in Septem-ber, 2014, the MRF and COFCO inked  their  first-ever  MoU  for  rice export to China through the sea route in February, 2015. The quota of rice export had been set at 100,000 tons.

This  is  the  second  time  that the MRF and COFCO have signed an MoU, agreeing upon an export quota of 100,000 tons of  rice.  The  MoU  comes  after  the  State  Counsellor  met  with  the  President  of  the  People’s  Republic  of  China  in  April  this  year.  Myanmar  did  not  obtain  a quota for rice export to China from 2016 to 2018.

The  MRF  is  endeavouring  to  stabilize  the  rice  market,  promote  exports,  and  explore  markets in countries with strict import policies. Private compa-nies  are  directly  entering  into  sale and purchase agreements with traders.

“We need to convert this gov-ernment-to-government  (G2G)  agreement  into  a  sustainable  pact.  Myanmar  requires  G2G  or  business-to-business  (B2B)  agreements for trade of pulses and  beans,  corn,  sesame,  fish,  and  shrimp  to  seek  a  share  of  the  Chinese  market.  The  gov-ernment and the private sector also  need  to  move  forward  in  harmony through public private partnerships (PPP),” said U Ye Min Aung.

In addition to normal trade, Myanmar and Chinese business-es have agreed to export 10,000 tons  of  rice  stockpiled  at  Muse  gate,  following  recent  negotia-tions in Kumming Province.

Myanmar primarily exports rice to China through the border gates. However, trade in agricul-tural  products  has  been  halted  due to China clamping down on illegal  trade.  Therefore,  Myan-mar  could  only  export  500,000  tons of rice to China in the first eight  months  (Oct-May)  of  the  current fiscal year, which is half the  volume  registered  during  the year-ago period.—GNLM (Translated by EMM)