The price of pigeon peas has risen due to growing demand from India in the recent days, while the price of sesame seeds is on the decline as the fresh sesame are flooding Mandalay market, said traders from Mandalay pulses and beans depot.
“India’s quota on pigeon pea import has become effective since 1 April. Yet, they started purchasing them in May-end. Prior to the purchase, the pigeon peas (red grams) touched a low of K68,000 per three-basket bag. Now, the price increases to K73,000. The price is up by K5,000 per bag. At present, those traders who stored red grams are having a healthy profit,” said deputy chair U Myo Swe of Mandalay Commodity Depot.
Meanwhile, the sesame price drops at the harvest time, according to Mandalay Depot.
“The traders halted sesame purchase when the harvest time approached. Having said that, the price plunged to K112,000 per bag. Sesame (Samone variety) is priced K140,000-160,000 per bag. Earlier, it crossed above K200,000,” he said.
China is the main buyer of Myanmar’s sesame, which is also shipped to markets in Japan, South Korea, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, and Poland among the EU countries. According to the notification of India’s Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India allowed importing 400,000 tonnes of pigeon peas for the 2020-2021 FY.
Myanmar’s pigeon peas are shipped to markets in India, Singapore, the US, Canada, Pakistan, the UK, and Malaysia. But, the export volume is extremely small compared with black beans and green grams. In the 2016-2017 financial year, over 160,000 tonnes of pigeon peas were shipped to foreign countries, while in the 2017-2018FY, exports crossed 220,000 tonnes. Myanmar ships over 1.6 million tonnes of different varieties of pulses, especially black beans, with an estimated worth of US$1 billion, to other counties in the last 2018-2019 FY.—IPRD/ Ko Htet
(Translated by Ei Myat Mon)
