The Myanmar Rice Industry Association (MRIA) expects the country to export 300,000 tonnes of parboiled rice in the next fiscal year starting April 1, up from 30,000 tonnes this fiscal year.
Demand for Myanmar parboiled rice is growing in European markets, said MRIA Chairman Chit Khine. Myanmar exported most of the parboiled rice during this fiscal year to European markets, mainly to Russia.
Myanmar’s total rice exports, however, fell 28.6 percent to 1 million tonnes this fiscal year, hurt by a fall in demand from China and political turmoil in Thailand.
“We have already built modern mills and factories with total capacity of over 1,000 tonnes of parboiled rice per day while some more are still under construction,” Khine said.
“Our (parboiled rice) fetches very competitive prices as it is processed with modern technology. We got up to $505 per tonne this year,” Khine said.
He expects Myanmar to export up to 1.5 million tonnes of total rice this year.