The price of pigeon peas jumped by K250,000 per tonne, according to the Yangon Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Bayintnaung).
The price surged to K3.5 million per tonne on 16 August from K3.35 million recorded on 15 August.
Similarly, the black gram price spiked at K2.416 million per tonne on 16 August.
India’s demand and the US dollar exchange rate weigh on prices of pulses in Myanmar. Strong demand by India drove the price to a record high last June.
The price of pigeon peas hit a record high of K3.33 million per tonne on 5 June. The black gram price peaked at K2.461 million per tonne on 14 June.
The prevailing price of pigeon peas broke the previous record high. Myanmar shipped more than 580,000 tonnes of pulses, with an estimated value of over $460 million, to foreign countries over the past four months during the 2023-2024 financial year beginning 1 April, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
Myanmar’s pulses exports crossed over $1.4 billion from over 1.9 million tonnes in the past FY 2022-2023, the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics indicated.
Myanmar mainly exports black gram, green gram and pigeon peas to foreign markets. Of them, black grams and pigeon peas are mostly conveyed to India while green grams are shipped to China and Europe.
India has growing demand and consumption requirements for black grams and pigeon peas. According to a Memorandum of Understanding between Myanmar and India signed on 18 June 2021, India will import 250,000 tonnes of black grams and 100,000 tonnes of pigeon peas (tur) from Myanmar for five consecutive years from 2021-2022 financial year to 2025-2026 FY. — NN/ EM
