The prices of rice and seed rice have been steadily increasing in Mon State since the beginning of October, and Mudon Township rice traders have predicted that prices will continue to elevate.
“Rice prices increasing is good for farmers, this month we sold our seed rice left over from last year; as for the people who buy the rice, maybe they have will have problems getting rice,” said a farmer from Mudon Township.
According to the village consumers from Mudon Township that IMNA interviewed, the cost of 100 baskets of seed rice is currently 600,000 kyat; last month 100 baskets of seed rice cost 510,000 kyat. Normal quality rice currently costs 28,000 kyat per basket, and high quality rice costs 35,000 kyat per basket. Prices are expected to increase.
According to farmers from Mudon Township, prices also increased during last year’s rainy season, but only ever reached 500,000 kyat for 100 baskets of seed rice.
“At the beginning of this year’s rainy season, the price of rice was about 20,000 kyat per basket, but now the price has increased about 7,000 kyat per basket, so today for one basket we have to pay about 27,000 kyat. Most of the rice in Ye township is brought in by traders from Kamawet village in Mudon Township,” said a rice trader from Ye Township.
Because rice only forms a small part of Ye Township’s various agricultural productions, Ye residents depend on rice from Mudon Township. Ye Township contains about 10,000 households, and depends on Mudon Township for about one third of the rice that it consumes.
Rice prices have increased in Mudon Township, Thanphyuzayart (Thanbyuzayat) Township and Ye Township. In addition, a Mudon farmer with economic interests in Bago Division reports that the price of seed rice from Pegu has increased to about 600,000 kyat for 100 baskets.
“This rainy season, rice prices went up, but this is normal. In every rainy season, the rice prices were going up, but this year far more than last year. Some people say it is because the military produced the 5000 kyat note,” claimed a source from Young Doung village, in Mudon Township.
A trader from Mudon Township informed IMNA that even though rice prices have already increased a great deal, traders are still purchasing rice en masse, because rice prices are still expected to elevate a great deal.
According to this same rice trader, rice merchants in Mudon Township blame the heightened prices on both the Burmese government’s production of the 5000 kyat note, and the large quantities of rice that the government exports away from Burmese consumers to other countries.
A source from the Three Pagoda Pass (TPP) area reported to IMNA that traders in TPP are profiting from the elevated rice prices. Rice merchants from the area already purchase extra rice as insurance against the blocked highways that often isolate the TPP area during rainy season; TPP rice merchants are now doing brisk business selling the extra rice they have accrued back into the rest of Burma.
