Myanmar rice export suspended due to China’s import permit pending

Although Export of Myanmar rice to China has been suspended because of rice import permit pending, about 30,000 bags of broken rice are being exported daily, said Vice-Chair U Min Thein of the Muse Rice Wholesale Centre.

Myanmar rice trading to China has stopped because the last year’s rice export permit from China ended on 31 December. Myanmar is thus still waiting for the rice import permit from China for this year 2021. This is the reason why the rice entering the Muse border area is postponed, and the rice will re-enter the border area only in the first week of February.

However, broken rice could be exported with internal tax without an import licence. So, about 30,000 bags of broken rice are entering daily Muse border, and the same volume is being exported daily to China.

“The rice import permit ended on 31 December 2020. Consequently, we could not export the rice to China starting from 1 January. The broken rice doesn’t need a permit license. We have to pay only the internal taxes. Therefore, Myanmar exports the broken rice daily to Muse border commodity depot,” said U Min Thein.

“The price of broken rice is a bit on the decline. The price at Muse market was 130 Yuan for a bag of broken rice on 20 December. But, a bag of broken rice is sold only for 126 Yuan today, a decrease by four Yuan per bag,” he added.

China will issue the new rice export permits for 2021 in January. Also, according to the rice traders’ opinion, China is likely to give more licences to the companies this year than last year.

Myanmar shipped over 520,000 tonnes of rice and broken rice during the past three months of this financial year from 1 October to 18 December. In comparison, over 400,000 tonnes of rice export of Myanmar go to China.

The Global New Light of Mayanmar

Tags: exports to China, rice