The government is trying to export rice to Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines on a basis of G-to-G as there has been a fall in the current rice export sector. Moreover, the government will have to compete with rice-exporting countries for rice quality, according to the workshop on export promotion of Myanma rice sector.

“Indonesia, Malaysian and Philippines are mostly buying rice. The government will have to negotiate with these neighbouring countries for G-to-G basis to export rice to them,” said Ye Min Aung, General Secretary of Myanmar Rice Federation.

“We must try to compete with rice-exporting countries such Thailand as Vietnam, Pakistan and India for rice quality. We will have to compete with them for basic structures capable of producing quality rice. If we can‘t do like so, it will have negative effects on the economy of the country and its farmers. The government and the private sector should work together for that,” said Ye Min Aung.

“The usual words the international merchants said was ‘think Myanmar last’. They bought rice from Thailand, Pakistan and India if they saw conveniences. They can guess the situations in these countries in advance and their basic structures are in a good condition. Especially, there must be many gateways to rice export. Myanmar’s navigation gateway is Yangon. Yangon port is always full of activity. It is not easy to penetrate into the rice market at a time when Thailand, Pakistan and India are selling rice,” said Ye Min Aung.

Myanmar’s rice export volume reached more than 1.717 million tons of rice on US$ 578.807 million from April 1 to December 29 in 2018.  The last year’s export volume reached 2.542 million tons of rice on US$ 789.780 million.   

Translated and Edited by Win Htut