Govt buys rice to boost prices, stop crash
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The Commerce Ministry will be purchasing rice for state reserves once the summer rice crop is harvested, the minister said yesterday.
“This is to help farmers earn benefits and fair price for their summer paddy and we will buy it under a bidding system,” minister Win Myint said.
He explained that his ministry had bought out last year’s monsoon crop as well. Buying rice reserves will help stabilise the rice market and avoid chances of a market crash. The government has succeeded in maintaining the stability of the rice market in Ayeyawady, Bago and Yangon regions in January after the price of rice started dropping.
At the beginning of January, about 2 tonnes of rice was going for US$350 (Bt10,670) but drop to less than $300 in the middle of the month. However, the government decided to purchase the rice at that time to stop the market from crashing.
