29 July

Myanmar’s rice export is expected to reach two million tonnes this fiscal year, said U Myint Cho, Deputy Director General of Ministry of Commerce yesterday. The country’s staple crop export reached 3.6 million tonnes in 2016-2017 fiscal year, and declined to 2.4 million tonnes in the following fiscal year.

“Myanmar has shipped 1.514 million tonnes of rice and 381,000 tonnes of broken rice from 1 October to 19 July this fiscal year, receiving US$573 million from rice export. A total of rice export this year is likely to hit two million tonnes at least,” said the deputy director general at the 21st regular meeting of Myanmar Rice Millers Association held in Yangon. The Ministry of Commerce is inspecting the rice mills to be able to produce good quality rice that depends on the systematic production processes.

According to the statistic of previous fiscal year, Myanmar has 1,441 registered rice mills with the daily capacity of 15-tonned output each, and total production was 41,000 tonnes per day. The ministry is also negotiating with China to export more rice after inspecting 42 modern mills in the country, although only 11 companies were allowed rice export to China in 2014.—Myint Maung Soe  (Translated by Aung Khin)