Myanmar has earned over US$2,660 million from export of rice over the past four years seeing a record low of just over US$517 million in earnings in 2019-2020 fiscal year, the Central Statistics Organization quoted the Customs Department as saying. 

The rice export earnings amounted to US$666.54 million from October to September in 2016-2017 FY, US$906.04 million from October to September in 2017-2018 FY, US$570.33 million from October to September in 2018-2019 FY and US$517.96 million from October to September in 2019-2020 FY.

However, total earnings of rice and broken export in 2019-2020 FY reached over US$790 million due to the increased broken rice export and over US$84 million more was earned compared to the previous fiscal year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. 

In 2019-2020 FY, 2.585 million tons of rice and broken rice worth US$794.388 million while the previous FY saw export of 2.355 million tons of rice and broken rice worth US$709.694 million. 

 “In 2019-2020 FY rice export decreased. But with the increased export of broken rice (about 450,000 tons more), income has also increased. We earned about US$80 million more,” said a ministry official. 

Some countries have offered to buy rice from Myanmar so it is necessary to sell quality rice at fair prices to the countries facing difficulties, Union Minister for Commerce Dr Than Myint has said.