Ayeyawady Int’l Industrial Port ships export rice to Bangladesh

Myanmar exports rice to Bangladesh from Yangon port and the Ayeyawady International Industrial Port (AIIP) in Pathein Industrial City in the Ayeyawady Region under a G-to-G agreement for 200,000 tonnes of rice. The third ship carrying 2,650 tonnes of rice will leave for Bangladesh soon.
The country directly exported 2,650 tonnes of rice by MV MCL-7 on 2 November, and 2,615 tonnes by MV MCL-21 on 7 November from the AIIP. On 8 November, 50-kilogramme Emahta rice bags were loaded onto MV MCL-12, which will carry 2,650 tonnes of rice as the third ship direct to Bangladesh.
“We are making procedures to export 2,650 tonnes of rice by MV MCL-12 to Bangladesh. We load 53,000 rice bags onto the ship. There are ample job opportunities as we can export rice from Pathein to Bangladesh directly. The regional chief minister also gave instructions to cooperate with departmental officials and businesspersons so as to develop the economy of the region. The ship will leave soon,” said U Tun Tun, deputy director of the Consumer Affairs Department of Ayeyawady Region.
The Ayeyawady Region, which is described as a rice bowl of Myanmar, possesses about 5.1 million acres of monsoon and summer paddy and produces over 330 million baskets of paddy and about 3.3 tonnes of rice per year. There are 6.4 million population in Ayeyawady with a rice consumption rate of 1 million per year. A total of 1.4 million tonnes of rice are consumed by 300,000 visitors to Chaungtha, Ngwe Saung and Ngapali beaches and transported to Yangon, Bago and Magway, and it is estimated to export the remaining 900,000 tonnes to earn foreign incomes.
Previously, it cost hugely in exporting rice from Yangon port to Bangladesh due to high transport charges and labour costs from Ayeyawady Region to Yangon. Currently, it can export from Ayeyawady International Industrial Port in Pathein directly and so it brings benefits to the State, private business people and residents.
It is also set to increase the export volume between 30,000 and 100,000 tonnes of rice from AIIP in Pathein to Bangladesh directly depending on the local production and rice surplus.—Nyein Thu (MNA)/GNLM