High local rice prices draw illegal Thai imports

“Rice from Thailand began entering the local market ten days ago. It has been seen for sale in retail shops,” said Lu Maw Myint Maung, co-secretary of the association.

Thai rice is sold in 50-kg bags. Each is priced about Ks2,000-Ks3,000 cheaper than the best locally-produced rice. Local rice price is higher due to insufficient supplies, due to floods and high demand from China. Myanmar allocates 80 per cent of its local rice output for export to China, but actual demand outstrips the official exports – prompting illegal trade of rice along the Myanmar-China border.

“All exports through the Muse checkpoint are official. But Chinese buyers also made orders unofficially as by doing so, they will be exempted from tax. With the saved tax money, they can buy more rice from Myanmar,” the co-secretary said.

He is concerned that this would further push up Myanmar rice price, to the level that is higher than in other Asean countries. This would spur more imports.

Nay Lin Zin, the other co-secretary, was also worried on possible negative impacts from the Asean Economic Community (AEC) and the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta).

He saw the need for Myanmar to improve the economic data and policies to gauge the impacts. He noted that under Afta, Myanmar could not block the flow of goods including rice. As such, the country’s competitiveness should be enhanced.