Illegal Burmese Rice Exports Boom on Thai Border

By LAWI WENG

Rice traders in Myawaddy, opposite the Thai border town of Mae Sot, are illegally exporting hundreds of thousands of bags of rice to Thailand every week, according to sources in the local business community.

A businessman in Myawaddy said yesterday that there were around 10,000 sacks of rice piled on the Burmese side of the Moei River, which separates Mae Sot and Myawaddy, as traders waited for heavy rains to stop so they could resume the illegal export.

Burma’s junta officially banned the border rice trade after Cyclone Nargis struck the country’s Irrawaddy delta on May 2-3. The storm devastated much of the farmland in the region, which is Burma’s main rice-growing area.

A Burmese truck driver, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that there are around 30 trucks transporting rice from Moulmein to Myawaddy each day, each one carrying 500 to 700 bags of rice.

“We hide the rice on the backs of our trucks under bags of onions, garlic and spices,” said the truck driver.

He added that rice traders pay bribes of 200 kyat (US $0.16) per bag of rice so the trucks can pass through checkpoints set up by a Burmese military battalion stationed at Thingannyinaung and by Karen ceasefire groups, including the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army and Karen Peace Force.

A rice trader in Myawaddy said that some of the rice had to be repackaged, because Thai merchants would not accept rice in bags marked with the logos of Burmese companies.

“I haven’t seen any Burmese logos this month, but last month I saw some bags marked with the Htoo Trading Company logo,” he added.

There has been strong demand for Burmese rice in Thailand this year, due to rising prices for domestically grown rice.

Local businesspeople predicted that the illegal trade would continue if Thai demand remains strong, although there are fears that a poor harvest resulting from delays in planting this year’s crop after Cyclone Nargis could create a rice shortage in Burma.

Local observers said that there are growing concerns that the continuing export of Burmese rice to Thailand could lead to a drastic increase in rice prices in Burma.