December 30, 2021
About 10,000 bags of rice and broken rice are daily delivered to China via the Muse cross-border post, said U Min Thein, vice-chair of the Muse Rice Wholesale Centre.
Earlier, export volume to China was approximately 60,000 bags of rice and broken rice per day.
“Trade cannot go as smooth as like before. Only one checkpoint between Myanmar and China is available for border trade at the moment. As a result of this, about 10-12 trucks carrying 10,000 bags left for China,” said U Min Thein.
China shut down all the border crossings with Myanmar in the wake of COVID-19 negative consequences. Of the land borders, Kyinsankyawt has been reopened on a trial run from 26 November.
Myanmar exports about 40 truckloads of goods, including rubber, various beans and pulses, dried plum, watermelon, muskmelon and other food commodities to China via Kyinsankyawt every day.
Myanmar has shipped more than 500,000 tonnes of rice and broken rice to foreign trade partners between 1 October and 30 November in the current mini-budget period (2021-2022), the Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) stated.
The country sent over 27,000 tonnes of rice and broken rice to the neighbouring countries through border trade zones, whereas it placed over 470,000 tonnes in the international market via maritime trade.
Myanmar also generated an income of US$700 million from two million tonnes of rice exports to the foreign countries in the past 2020-2021 financial year.
Myanmar shipped rice to nearly 60 foreign countries and of them, China is the main buyer of Myanmar rice and broken rice.
On 26 February 2021, China gave the green light to 47 Myanmar companies to import the rice via the Muse border trade camp this year. — NN/GNLM
