As the Beijing Olympic Games in China approaches on August 8, it has upset thousands of border jade traders in Kachin State in northern Burma, said local jade traders.
Illegal and legal small-scale jade markets in Kunming, Ruili (Shweli), Tengchong and Ying Jiang in China's Yunnan Province is on a downslide without Chinese buyers since May, a jade trader in Ying Jiang told KNG today.
The reason is that almost all regular border jade buyers from Kunming, Beijing and Guangzhou have gone to the Beijing Olympic Games for selling jade and jade products, Kachin jade traders in Ying Jiang said.
According to jade traders in Ying Jiang, they could sell jade from Phakant in Kachin State for between 500 Yuan (US $73.5) and 6,000,000 Yuan (US $882,352.9) in Ying Jiang before May.
Jade without company seals cannot be carried into China but those without seals or illegal pieces of jade are mainly sold in Yunnan through brokers, added jade traders.
At the moment, hundreds of Kachin jade traders are staying in Ying Jiang without being able to sell their jade. On the other hand there are hundreds of jade traders in Kachin State facing a big problem of not having a market for jade, said a Kachin jade businessman in Myitkyina Township, the capital of Kachin State.
Since 2005, Phakant jade mines have received permits under a new mining system by the Burmese ruling junta's Ministry of Mines known as "Naing-Ngan-Daw Akyoto" in Burmese which means mutual-benefit between private jade mining companies and the junta.
On the other hand all companies are permitted to sell jade product.
Jade is seen in Ying Jiang in Yunnan.
s only in the junta-run regular emporium in Rangoon, former capital of the country since the junta's Ministry of Mines directly controls Phakant since 1994. Before that Phakant was fully or partly controlled by Kachin Independence Organization (KIO).
It is because of this hundreds of Kachin jade tycoons and thousands of jade traders who mostly do not own companies have to rely on illegal jade markets in Yunnan in order to sell their jade over the last three years.
The Kachin State's economy is mostly dependant on jade, gold and timber businesses, local traders added.
At the same time export of illegal timber from Kachin State to China borders have also been stopped since May. Jade and timber traders in Kachin State are dejected with the situation emanating from the Beijing Olympics, said local businessmen.
