Myanmar is making discussion with India to export beans under a government to government agreement, said Yan Naing Tun, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Commerce on October 18.

“Deputy Director General went to negotiate with officials from Indian embassy last month in order to export beans under a G to G agreement. We’ve already drew plans to export bean and presented it to Indian officials. We will make necessary preparations for exporting bean in the meantime if the Indian officials agreed with our plan,” said the permanent secretary.

India restricted the bean import as it has been producing more beans locally. Myanmar had proposed to a G to G bean export agreement since 2016, he said.

“The bean exporters faced difficulty as India restricted bean import. Our state leaders and officials from the ministry made negotiations with Indian officials many times in relation to the issue,” he said.

The ministry and organizations formed a committee and are planning to increase bean import.

“We reorganized the committee and officials from the ministry, director generals from agriculture department, bean planters, sales representatives and exporters are included in the committee. We also invited experts and the committee meeting will be held in coming Saturday. We will discuss about the proposed contract and plan for further arrangements,” he said.

He continued, “Generally, we proposed a plan about ways to send beans to them and the price of the beans. We will be exporting with the current market prices. The actual export will not be made by the government but by companies and associations. But the government has to take responsibility to make negotiations for bean exporters. We will make a public announcement if we know more about this in detail.”