India’s government announced on March 19 that it will purchase an additional 400,000 tonnes of black gram beans, known locally as matpe, from Myanmar this year

India’s government announced on March 19 that it will purchase an additional 400,000 tonnes of black gram beans, known locally as matpe, from Myanmar this year.

India’s Directorate of General Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that it is allowing imports of 400,000 tonnes of black gram for the fiscal year of 2020-21

“This is good news for growers in Myanmar. India’s demand for black gram could take up all of Myanmar’s production. It is likely they increased their quotas since the visit of President U Win Myint to India earlier this year,” said Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association Secretary U Min Ko Oo.

Indian traders will be allowed to ship the 400,000 tonnes of matpe to Indian port from May 1, this year to the end of March 2021. In the meantime, the deadline to ship 250,000 tonnes bought late last year has also been extended to the end of April this year.

“Of the 250,000 tonnes sold late last year, another 40 percent still has to be sent to India, so the extension of the deadline to ship is also welcomed,” ,” said Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association Chair U Tun Lwin.

The government of India announced earlier this year that licences to import matpe beans can only be applied for from March 20 to 31, this year.

The continued demand for matpe from Myanmar has caused the price of the crop to stay firm at between K900,000 to K1 million per tonne, while the price of pigeion pea, which India stopped buying from Myanmar, has fallen bellow K700,000 per tonne.