15 March

Local people from Monywa Township are happy with their increasing incomes from selling toddy chairs. They are making toddy chairs in Kapalake village in Katha Township, Sagaing Region.

Toddy chair makers arrived at Kapalake village from Monywa township. They purchase the raw materials from Monywa to assemble toddy chairs and carry them by land route to manufacture the chairs in Katha township. They sell a chair for K 6,000 or K 7,500.

Although there is no daily demand, they are happy because they can make a high profit by selling them.

“We can make 15 or 20 toddy chairs daily from the raw materials. We purchase a bundle of toddy-palm branches for K 2,500 to use as raw materials to produce chairs and K 1,200 or K 1,300 for toddy
boards.

Then, we make toddy chairs in Katha township. We need four people to make the toddy chairs. One person fixes the toddy chair and the remaining three sell them by delivering them on motorbikes in the villages and in towns.

Although we don’t have regular demand for toddy chairs, the chairs sell better in Katha township than in Monywa,” said U Yarzar Win, a toddy chair maker.—Ye Aung (Katha)

(Translated by Hay Mar)