Paddy prices are low in Mon State despite a weak harvest this year say farmers and traders, who blame the decrease on the global economic crisis.
According to a farmer on Belukyn Island, Chaungzone Township, 100 baskets of the un- husked rice currently sell for 100,000 kyat less than January 2008. A farmer in Mudon Township cited a similar decrease. In both locations, for instance, 100 baskets of low quality paddy fetches 300,000 kyat, down from 380,000 to 400,000 during the same time period in 2008.
Rice traders report that rice values are down as well. In Moulmein, a 50 kilogram sack of rice is selling for 18,000 kyat. In 2008, the same amount of similar quality rice sold for 25,000 kyat. In Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burma border, traders report that the normally bustling black-market rice trade has also taken a hit; sacks selling for 1,000 baht last year are now worth just 750 baht.
Worse for farmers, the declining price means that few traders are interested in buying the paddy – at any price. “Last year, every year, I bought all the paddy in my village and took it on a boat to Tenasserim Division to sell.,” a trader from Belukyn Island told IMNA. “This year, people do not have so much money to buy rice so I will not buy any to sell.”
A businesswoman who normally trades rice between Moulmein and Three Pagodas Pass agreed, and said she would be “resting” this year, for the low value means the trade is no longer worthwhile.
The decline in rice prices could be explained by growing global rice supplies, which the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) calculates to be 10 percent higher than last year. Production in Asia, however, increased only 2%, leaving it unclear just how much the global surplus is affecting Burma.
In spite of the global numbers, Burma’s harvest, which recently drew to a close, has proven weak. According to the FAO, rice production is down 8% this year as the Irrawaddy Delta area struggles to recover from Cyclone Nargis. A rice trader from Rangoon quoted in a recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, meanwhile, estimated that rice production in the delta area is down 20 percent.
Farmers in Mudon and Belukyn confirmed the UN reports, and told IMNA that the harvest this year is lower than that of 2008. “I have 7.5 acres of farmland and this year I got 200 baskets. Last year, I harvested almost 350 baskets,” said a farmer from Belukyn. “The paddy season was not as good this year because there was too much rain.”
Whatever the reason for the decline in rice and paddy prices, farmers report that they are finding themselves in an increasingly tight bind. For many who took out loans to pay for farming expenditures, difficult questions will come in the coming months as interest on the loans mount. “For farming this year, I had to invest 150,000 kyat for daily labor and an extra 300,000 for harvest labor. Also, 200,000 kyat for fertilizer. But now farmers are having trouble selling paddy, have no money and are unhappy,” said the farmer from Belukyn.
“I am very unhappy. Nobody will buy the paddy,” agreed a farmer from Mudon whose 20-acre farm is virtually overflowing with more than 1,000 baskets of paddy. “Now, I just want to give the paddy away to people for free.”
The price drop, however, offered a silver lining to some IMNA sources, at least for the moment. “I am very happy because the paddy is cheap – for my family, it is good,” said a day laborer in Mudon. “But I feel pity for the farmers.”
