6 March

Myanmar exported more than 100,000 tons of various pulses and beans in the first two months of this year, as per data from the Commerce Ministry.

Myanmar exports mung beans, pigeon peas, green grams, peanuts, chickpeas, butter beans, and other beans and pulses.

“India’s mung bean requirement has been increasing, but the traders are offering a low price. The mung beans price is currently sliding,” according to the Myanmar Pulses, Beans, and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association.

Following President U Win Myint’s visit to India, the March-end deadline for exporting 250,000 tons of mung beans to India has been extended until the end of April, the association stated.

The association has also made a request to India through Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce to declare the quota limit for the 2020-2021 financial year.

India had earlier set the mung beans quota at 150,000 tons and increased the quota limit by a further 250,000 tons last year, according to a trade notice issued by India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade.

The deadline for the increased quota of 250,000 tons was earlier set at 31 March, 2020. Now, the quota period has been extended till April-end to provide more time to farmers and traders.

India recorded low mung beans yield due to erratic weather last year. Under the provincial government’s approval, more mung beans are being purchased beyond the previous quota limit, which has driven up mung beans prices to above K1.3 million per ton.

Myanmar’s mung beans, pigeon peas, and green grams are primarily exported to India. Although Myanmar pulses and beans have penetrated markets in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the volume of exports to those countries is extremely low.

Myanmar shipped over 1.6 million tons of different varieties of pulses, worth an estimated US$1 billion, to other countries in the 2018-2019 financial year. —Mon Mon (Translated by Ei Myat Mon)