20 October

ALTHOUGH India is buying My-anmar beans to meet domestic demand, the prices it is offering are low, said U Min Ko Oo, the secretary of the Myanmar Puls-es,  Beans,  and  Sesame  Seeds  Merchants Association. 

“India,  the  main  buyer  of  Myanmar beans and pulses, has announced  an  import  quota  of  150,000 tons for mung beans this year. With the demand for mung beans from India rising during their  bean  production  season,  India is purchasing more Myan-mar beans to meet the needs of the market. However, the orders to  buy  mung  beans  have  to  be  made with the permission of the Indian government,” he added.

“Despite the high demand, India  is  purchasing  Myanmar  beans  only  at  low  prices.  We  found  that  bean  farming  in  some  states  of  India  has  been  adversely  affected  by  flooding  and torrential rains. 

In  this  regard,  India  has  already  announced  an  import  quota of 150,000 tons for mung beans.  Now,  in  October,  their  import quota system has been India buying Myanmar beans at low price despite high demand  FDI likely to increase in current fiscal, especially in offshore oil blocks: Ministershore  oil  blocks  and  minerals,”  said U Thaung Tun.“The Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations is  inviting  investors  to  conduct  business in a responsible and ac-countable manner. If those busi-nesses enter Myanmar, it would be beneficial for our country. We are  already  implementing  the  Myanmar Investment Promotion Plan  (MIPP),  which  was  drawn  with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agen-cy (JICA),” he added.  Under the MIPP, the country has set a target of attracting over $200 billion in FDI within the next 20 years, said U Thaung Tun.“Moreover,  the  Investment  and Foreign Economic Relations Ministry is working to update the policy. So, Myanmar’s economic sector will develop significantly in the next fiscal,” he added. According to an ADB report released a few days ago, Myan-mar expects GDP to grow by 6.6 per  cent  next  year.  The  World  Bank has forecast a growth of 6.8 per  cent.  The  Myanmar  Invest-ment  Commission  is  targeting  $5.8  billion  in  FDI  in  the  2019-2020FY.    Although  the  MIC  had  set  an  FDI  target  of  $5.8  billion  in the 2018-2019FY, but only $4.5 billion came in, less than a billion dollars.During the period from 1988 to  the  end  of  September,  2019,  around  1,837  foreign  enterpris-es from 50 countries around the world were permitted to invest a total of $81.8 billion in 12 sectors. The  countries  with  the  highest  investment rates are Singapore, China,  and  Thailand,  and  they  largely  flowed  into  oil  and  gas,  electricity,  and  manufacturing  sectors. Myanmar  received  $9.4  bil-lion in foreign direct investment in the 2015-2016FY, $6.6 billion in the 2016-2017FY, and $5.7 billion in the 2017-2018 FY. (Translated by Hay Mar) suspended,  and  they  have  in-vited  merchants  to  submit  or-ders  to  buy  mung  beans  with  the  permission  of  the  Indian  government.  They  are  pur-chasing  mung  beans  like  last  year.  When  India  is  in  need  of  beans, it changes its policy. Last year,  India  was  faced  with  the  same  problem.  Anyway,  the  price  of  Myanmar  beans  has  increased  in  the  local  market.  But,  the  price  of  beans  in  the  Indian  market  has  decreased  by US$250 per ton compared to the  Myanmar  market,”  said  U  Min Ko Oo.

“While  the  price  of  beans  has increased to $650 per ton in Myanmar, the price is over $800 in the Indian bean market. India is  used  to  changing  its  policy  when  they  need  the  beans  to  import into their country. If they still purchase under the import quota system, our country will suffer  losses  in  trade  because  we will not get a fair price,” he said.

In  order  to  prevent  losses  to local farmers because of the unreliable  and  unpredictable  policy of India, the government had  requested  that  India  pur-chase Myanmar beans through the government-to- government channel. However, India has not made  any  response  yet.  India  is  only  purchasing  Myanmar  beans  under  the  import  quota  system,  he  added.  If  India  is  still  practicing  the  quota  sys-tem,  Myanmar,  which  mainly  imports  beans  to  India,  needs  to be careful in bean production, according to the Myanmar Puls-es,  Beans,  and  Sesame  Seeds  Merchants Association. 

“The  association  and  the  government  cannot  say  which  bean should be grown and which should not. We can only explain the real situation,” said U Min Ko Oo. 

Currently, new mung beans are fetching over K100,000 per ton in the local market. 

By Nyein Nyein (Trans-lated by Hay Mar)