16 June

DOMESTIC demands for salted shredded  mango  has  declined  by nearly half in three years in Magway  Region,  according  to  local retailers.

Regarding  the  decline,  U  Hla Myint, a local shredded man-go producer, said, “Demand for salted  shredded  mango  is  de-creasing  year  after  year.  When  compared  with  the  previous  three  consecutive  years,  de-mand  for  the  product  dropped  by  nearly  half.  This  is  linked  to  a  decrease  in  production  of  some crops in the region, as the market totally depends on rural areas  where  people  rely  large-ly  on  farming,  and  they  make  donations when they have high crop yields.

Salted  shredded  mango  is  one  of  the  marketable  domes-tic products in Magway Region. Normally,  a  customer  buys  25  tical (0.408 kilograms). Demand for the product is high, especial-ly  in  charitable  seasons  when  donors  would  give  at  least  ten  viss (16.329 kilograms) of salted shredded mango, he added.

This year has seen a decline in production in some townships in  the  region  due  to  erratic  weather conditions.

Another  shredded  mango  producer, Daw Aye Kyi, said salt-ed  shredded  mango  producers  are  facing  difficulties  due  to  a  continuous decrease in demand for  the  product.  Earlier,  there  were  many  salted  shredded  mango  producers  in  Magway.  Now,  the  number  of  producers  has declined to five.

At present, an 80-litre bag of raw materials is sold for K6,000 in  the  market.  A  viss  of  salted shredded  mango  is  currently  priced  at  K1,000.  The  prices  of  salted shredded mango is worth some K2,500 per viss (1.63 kilo-grams) in February and March when the market sees low pro-duction.—Zeyatu  (Magway)  (Translated by Khaing Thanda Lwin)