Myanmar to hold rice trade forum

Illustrative image (Source: moi.gov.mm)

The Myanmar Rice Federation (MRF) will hold a forum for sustainable development of rice industry this month, the official Global New Light of Myanmar reported on February 3.

Under the title "Rice Trade Development Forum," the event aims to maintain the status of the country's rice sector and exchange views for the sectoral development.

The forum will also host panel discussions on controlling the rice price, farmers' problems, gaining appropriate profits for rice millers, rice merchants and exporters, and providing assistance to small and medium enterprises.

Official figures show Myanmar earned about 700 million USD from exporting 2.6 million tonnes of rice as of January 19 in the current 2017-18 fiscal year.

During the period, the country's agriculture product export hit 2.4 billion USD, accounting for 25 percent of the total exports.

Challenging with erratic weather, dependence on foreign market demand, and request to increase value-added products, Myanmar is making efforts to promote agricultural production, while addressing the issue of high transportation cost.

In September 2017, Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding on exporting 300,000 tonnes of rice to Bangladesh in line with a previously signed inter-governmental agreement.

Accordingly, Myanmar will ship 250,000 tonnes of white rice and 50,000 tonnes of parboiled rice to Bangladesh each year up to 2022.

VNA

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