Global Slump Hits Burmese Crop Growers, Traders

By MIN LWIN

Crop prices in Burma have fallen 50 percent over the past year because of declining demand by the country’s two major export markets, China and India, according to traders at the Mandalay Commodity Centre.

Prices of beans, sesame and nuts began falling with the onset of the global financial crisis in late October 2008. The price of beans dropped from 825,000 kyat ($753) per ton to about 374,000 kyat ($341), according to Mandalay business sources.

Apart from China and India, Burma experienced declining orders from Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. The decline was attributed to the effects of the global slump.

Cross-border trading is at a standstill because prices are now lower than production costs, according to traders. Commodities are piling up on both sides of Burma’s borders, waiting for buyers.

“Bigger companies have been hit harder than smaller ones,” said one trader from Tamu Township, on the Burmese-Indian border, Investors in border trading were hit most, she said.

Some exporters of crops to India had gone into hiding because they were unable to pay back loans for growing and dealing in commodities that were no longer profitable, the trader said.

Burmese local authorities in Myawaddy Township have meanwhile restricted Thai-Burmese cross-border trading.

The chairman of the chamber of commerce in Thailand’s border province of Tak, Ampol Chatchaiyareuk, said exports of Burmese sea food and timber were affected by the restrictions. “The Burmese local authority wants to control illegal trading with Thailand,” he said.