MYITKYINA-----Chinese companies will be leaving from Kachin State because they saw the loss of profits in their tissue-Culture Banana plantation business in Kachin State, according to Kachin State Crops Cultivation and Producers Association.

The Chairman of Kachin State Crops Cultivation and Producers Association said that three Chinese companies held the meeting in China on December 18th and they decided to withdraw their business in Kachin State due to travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 outbreak and difficulties of transportation access.

“Three Chinese companies will be leaving from Kachin State. I think half of Chinese companies will withdraw their Tissue-Culture Banana plantation business in the coming year. They told me that they would transfer to Laos. In our country, Tissue-Culture Banana plantation is illegal business. The Chinese companies want to become legal businesses. Mainly, there have been difficulties of travel and jobs during COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, they were having trouble with the vehicles which always delay in loading the tissue-culture banana. They faced loss about two years ago. And then, the flooding and landslide caused loss of their profits. We had complained against three Chinese companies which ran away,” said the Chairman of Kachin State Crops Cultivation and Producers Association.

The vendors in Banana plantations also said that there had been salary problems among the labourers who had worked at the Tissue-Culture banana plantations. As there was no money circulation in the banana plantations, it also impacted upon the vendors.

The Kachin Independence Organization/Kachin Independence Army-(KIO/KIA) had collected Ks 1.5 million per 100 acres in 2019. However, they didn’t receive fully cash due to the record floods in the rainy season.

In Kachin State, there are over 200 million of tissue-culture banana plants in about 150,000 acres.