More than 5,000 tonnes of rice – around 100,000 sacks – have piled up at the Myanmar-China border over the past month, when the Chinese authorities temporarily suspended imports without certificates from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ), said U Min Thein, vice chair of Muse 105-mile Rice Wholesale Center.
As a result, some 150 trucks have been unable to go beyond the Kyal Gaung area since April 3 and have hired warehouses to store rice in the meantime.
“The drivers hired 10 warehouses for more than 100,000 sacks of rice at K200 per sack,” said U Min Thein.
He added that the agriculture ministry had not been issuing AQSIQ certificates for the first few weeks in April but have started doing so after inspecting the rice stocks since April 20.
However, traders are anticipating further losses.
“We are incurring losses on the warehouse rentals for earlier stockpiles. We cannot trade those as they have not been inspected and don’t have AQSIQ certificates. The first 100,000 sacks of rice haven’t passed customs inspections yet so we can’t export additional sacks due to the backlog,” said U Min Thein.
Trade at the border resumed in May and China has issued letters to Chinese companies permitting them to import up to five times more rice than the amount purchased last year. In 2019, the Chinese government permitted the import of a total of 50,000 tonnes of rice.
This year, the quota has been raised to 250,000 tonnes, according to the Muse Rice Wholesale Center.
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