THE truck rental charges to export rice to China through Muse border checkpoint hiked over double, said U Min Thein, Vice-Chairman of Muse Rice Depot.
Earlier, the truck rental charges to export rice to China from Mandalay hit only K100 or K110 per viss. Now, the rental charges have risen to K240 per viss, it is learnt.
Yet, the rice traders are convenient for the soaring price of rice despite the rental charges jumping to export rice to China, he added.
“Although the truck rental charges are costly, it is profitable for the rice traders. Because of the high costs in Myanmar, China is offering higher prices to buy rice to fulfil the need for rice in their country. Previously, the low-quality rice in China was priced at only 130 Yuan. Now, it has jumped to 150 Yuan. Consequently, the price of rice is much higher despite the increase in truck rental charges,” U Min Thein explained.
Currently, the price of rice in China is 150 Yuan for a 50-kg bag of broken rice, 170 Yuan for Thuka, 190 Yuan for Shin Tone, 170 Yuan for Nga Sein and 170 Yuan for Yadana Toe.
China’s Customs authorities granted rice export licenses to 47 Myanmar companies on 26 February 2021 to enable the latter to export rice to China this year through the Muse border checkpoint.
This year, the Chinese government has granted more rice export licenses to more companies. But it is not yet known how many tonnes of rice was permitted. Now, the new permitted rice has started importing to China through the Muse border trade checkpoint.
Nevertheless, there are some difficulties to export new permitted rice to China because the private banks imposed restrictions on cash withdrawals in Myanmar.
During the first three months of the current financial year, Myanmar exported over 720,000 tonnes of rice and low-quality rice, generating over US$275 million, according to Myanmar Rice Federation.
The country sent over 308,000 tonnes to neighbouring countries via border trade, whereas the maritime trade saw over 418,000 tonnes.
Further, Myanmar has exported rice to 31 foreign markets so far. China is the main buyer of Myanmar rice with over 340,000 tonnes, followed by the Philippines (36,000 tonnes) and Poland (14,000 tonnes).
Meanwhile, low-quality rice was placed in 16 foreign markets. The country sent low-quality rice mostly to China (over 210,000 tonnes), followed by Belgium (46,000 tonnes) and Thailand (over 6,300 tonnes).
However, Myanmar has expected to export only 2 million tonnes of rice this FY because the weather changes have affected irrigation water and consequently, summer paddy cultivation will have to be reduced, said U Ye Min Aung, the Chairman of Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF).
Myanmar generated over US$800 million from rice export in the previous 2019-2020FY ending 30 September with an estimated volume of over 2.5 million tonnes.
NN/GNLM
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