Domestic, foreign demand drive broken rice price up

 

June 1

 

THE prices of broken rice are moving upwards on account of the strong demand by domestic and foreign traders, said U Than Oo, secretary of Bayintnaung Rice Wholesale Centre.

 

“The competitive buying of exporters and domestic alcoholic beverage manufacturers and feed industries hiked the price up. The price gap between rice and broken rice is only K200-300 per bag,” U Than Oo elaborated.

 

At present, the prices of broken rice moved in the range of K27,000-K30,000 per 108-pound basket. The price of broken rice is not that much different from the price of low-quality rice which is exported to foreign markets.

 

Additionally, approximately 600,000 bags of rice and broken rice are daily flowing into Bayintnaung Rice Wholesale Centre. Half of them are broken rice, U Than Oo continued.

 

Last April, Myanmar exported over 170,000 tonnes of rice and broken rice to foreign trade partners, with an estimated value of US$58.933 million.

 

Of them, $15.627 million worth over 50,530 tonnes of broken rice were shipped through sea trade Myanmar delivered $0.598 million worth of 1,940 tonnes of broken rice to neighbouring countries via cross border trade, with 1,620 tonnes to China and 320 tonnes to Thailand.

 

Myanmar conveyed about 18,200 tonnes of broken rice to China, 30,600 to Belgium, 1,000 to Lithuania, 500 to Poland, 180 to Singapore and 50 to Germany respectively last month.

 

Moreover, Myanmar sent $41.298 million worth over 119,260 tonnes of rice to the external market via sea trade, while $1.410 million worth of 4,180 tonnes of rice were exported to China via the cross-border channel.

 

Rice export volume accounts for 26,940 tonnes to countries in Asia, 49,720 to European Union member countries and 42,600 to countries in Africa.

 

Myanmar exported rice primarily to Ivory Coast (10,000 tonnes), Cameroon (9,000 tonnes), Angola (15,000 tonnes), Madagascar (8,500 tonnes), China (14,300 tonnes), the Philippines (12,200 tonnes), Sri Lanka (250 tonnes) and Hong Kong SAR (180 tonnes) in Asia.

 

The country shipped rice to EU member countries; Poland (8,800 tonnes), Lithuania (8,200 tonnes), Italy (8,690 tonnes), Spain (15,180 tonnes), Bulgaria (7,750 tonnes) and Belgium (700 tonnes) respectively. — NN/ GNLM