Paddy price goes up amidst supply of monsoon low-grade paddy

Monsoon low-grade paddy produced in 2022 has entered the market for two months and the prices of paddy significantly inched higher, said a trader.
Thukha paddy price edged up from K1.3 million per 100-basket (a basket contains 50 pounds) at the end of October to K1.34 million in the last week of November, according to a daily price rate posted on Facebook by a rice mill in delta area Wakema Township.
The prices of fast mature Pawsan paddy rose from K1.5 million per 100-basket (a basket contains 52 pounds) in October to K1.6 million at the end of November. The price of the sticky rice crop was set at K2.1 million per 100-basket.
The prevailing price in Wetlet area is a two-fold of that registered in the corresponding period in 2021. If there is an output of 70 baskets per acre, the farmer will earn approximately K900,000. At present, both late mature Pawsan and sticky rice crops generate income of around K1 million per acre.
The farmer can gain a handsome profit of K500,000 to K600,000 per acre after five months of cultivation. The farmers received the highest profit in end-2022 over the past decades.
Those monsoon paddy farmers are probable to reap that profit by 2022. It can weigh on the price of summer paddy somehow. The summer paddy output is expected to increase by 20 baskets per acre. If it is calculated the summer paddy price with the current market rate, it is estimated at K250,000 per 20 baskets. Additionally, the cost of summer paddy cultivation is higher than that of monsoon paddy.
Acreage of summer paddy is only 10 per cent of monsoon sowing acres. The market price is the driving force for the farmers to ramp up the production. When rice export volume is on the rice, high price of paddy at the harvest time encourages the farmers to expand more sown acreage.
The traders who keep the stocks in hand in the post-harvest period might benefit from the probability of a high price of paddy in mid-2023. That being so, the profit from the rocketing price of rice and broken rice in Yangon markets in mid-2022 also went to those traders who kept the stocks in hands.
The price climbed up during the harvest season of 2022 monsoon paddy. Then, the price of rice also rocketed when the traders put up for sales, posing a burden on the consumers.
Farmers are eager to boost rice cultivation so the export volume is expected to reach the record (3.5 million tonnes) before 2020.
There are around 1.5 million acres of monsoon paddy and 2 million acres of summer paddy across the country, totalling 1.7 million acres.—TWA/GNLM