Myanmar Rice Industry Expects Parboiled Rice Exports to Increase by Nine Times in FY 2014-15

Myanmar's parboiled rice exports are likely to surge to 300,000 tons in the fiscal year 2014-15 (April - March), up almost nine times from a mere 30,000 tons in 2013, according to the Myanmar Rice Industry Association (MRIA). The MRIA Chairman told Reuters that demand for Myanmar parboiled rice is increasing in the European markets, and most of the parboiled rice exports in FY 2013-14 were to the European Markets, mainly to Russia, which is seeing a decline in rice production. 

The MRIA Chairman said Myanmar has built modern mills and factories with a capacity of milling more than 1,000 tons of parboiled rice per day, adding that more mills are under construction. He also said that the country's parboiled rice prices are competitive as the processing is done using modern technology, and they got up to $505 per ton in FY 2013-14. The MRIA Chairman says that Myanmar's total rice exports in FY2013-14 are likely to decline about 29% to one million tons from previous year because of reduced demand in China and political turmoil in Thailand. 

However, he says that Myanmar would export up to 1.5 million tons of rice in FY 2014-15. According to the USDA, Myanmar is expected to export around 1.3 million tons of rice in calendar year 2014, up about 12% from an estimated 1.16 million tons in 2013. The agency estimates Myanmar’s rice production to grow to 12 million tons in MY 2013-14, up 2% from an estimated 11.7 million tons in MY 2012-13.

source: Oryza

http://oryza.com/news/rice-news/myanmar-rice-industry-expects-parboiled-rice-exports-increase-nine-times-fy-2014-15