Myanmar govt plans to purchase more reserve rice

The government is planning to purchase an additional 20,000 tonnes of rice for its reserves, said U Ye Htut Naing, director of the Department of Consumer Affairs under the Ministry of Commerce.

The government first announced that it would be purchasing 50,000 tonnes of rice from local farmers for reserve purposes earlier this year, when COVID-19 was first detected in Myanmar. It has so far successfully stored away 85 percent of that quota.

“We have proposed to buy a further 20,000 tonnes of rice to supplement the first 50,000 tonnes,” said U Ye Htut Naing.

The rice was procured from 12 export companies and stored at nine warehouses from April 30 to June 12. A total of 40,000 tonnes was purchased from Yangon, more than 3000 tonnes from Mandalay and 1000 tonnes from Nay Pyi Taw.

“We will sell these reserves to the people with the help of the Myanmar Rice Federation. We will sell via retail shops in the regions and states,” the consumer affairs department director added.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Myanmar will export a maximum of 2.5 million tonnes of rice in fiscal 2019-20. It purchased up to K38 billion worth of the remaining volumes of rice from local traders, and expects to buy up to 10pc of total export volumes for reserve purposes.