Drop anticipated in summer paddy prices

Following the decline in non-premium rice prices, traders are likely to slash the price of newly harvested summer paddy this month. The prices are expected to fall below K2 million per 100 baskets of new summer paddy and approximately K70,000 per sack of new summer rice.
New summer rice (non-premium) floods the Yangon market at K4,000 per sack, lower than monsoon rice in mid-March, Ko Kyaw involved in Wahdan rice depot told The Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).
Yangon’s rice market braces for sluggish demand in mid-March.
The paddy prices of the rice mill from Myaungmya Township on 15 March 2023 showed that the prices stood at K1.57 million per 100 baskets of 90-day short-matured paddy and K1.47 million for paddy cultivated under inter-cropping system.
The paddy prices were registered at K1.55-K1.6 million for non-premium paddy and K1.92 million for premium Pawsan paddy, according to figures from the rice mill in Wakema Township on 20 March 2023.
The monsoon paddy prices peaked at K2 million per 100 baskets of non-premium paddy and K3.3 million for premium Pawsan paddy in March 2024. The wholesale rice prices were K85,000-K98,000 per sack of non-premium rice and K123,000-K155,000 per sack of premium Pawsan rice.
The wholesale rice prices in Yangon moved in the range between K54,000 and K87,000 per sack in the corresponding period last year.
The figures reflected a remarkable rise in rice prices this year. The prediction for monsoon paddy prices went wrong last year.
If the summer paddy and rice prices drop this year, exporters will buy more. As the summer paddy yield is better than that of monsoon paddy, the farmers might not face losses. — TWA/KK