Pigeon pea price jumps to K3.3 mln per tonne in early 2024

The prices of pigeon peas bounced back to K3.315 million per tonne on 3 January 2024 from K3.222 million on 30 December 2023, reflecting a significant increase of K92,500 per tonne within five days.
Strong foreign demand in a bustling domestic market raised the price. The pigeon pea price hit a record high of K4.15 million per tonne on 8 September 2023. Myanmar primarily exports black grams, green grams, and pigeon peas to foreign markets. Of them, black grams and pigeon peas are mostly conveyed to India while green grams are shipped to China and Europe.
India has growing demand and consumption requirements for black grams and pigeon peas. According to a Memorandum of Understanding between Myanmar and India signed on 18 June 2021, India will import 250,000 tonnes of black grams and 100,000 tonnes of pigeon peas (tur) from Myanmar for five consecutive years from 2021-2022 financial year to 2025-2026 FY. This G-to-G pact will not affect the pulses’ annual quota set by India. Myanmar’s exporters are also entitled to deliver the pulses to India under that annual quota. Myanmar exported around 1.1 million tonnes of pulses worth over $953 million to foreign trade partners over the past eight months of the current 2023-2024 financial year beginning 1 April, the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics showed. Myanmar’s pulses exports bagged US$1.47 billion from over 1.9 million tonnes in the previous FY 2022-2023, the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics indicated. — NN/EM