Pigeon pea sets three-week high in domestic market

The price of pigeon peas (tur) increased by K60,000 per tonne in the past three weeks, pulses market data indicated.
On 1 January 2023, the pigeon pea fetched K1.755 million per tonne in the domestic market and then, significantly rose to K1.81 million per tonne on 19 January 2023.
The fluctuation of the Kyat-Dollar exchange rate and the main buyer India’s demand heavily influenced the prices of pigeon peas, traders said.
Kyat depreciated at K2,850 against the hard currency in the local forex market. When Kyat against the US dollar drastically fell to over K4,500 in August 2022, the price of pigeon pea hit a record high of K2.12 million per tonne.
Additionally, India notified on 28 December that the free import policy of black gram (urad) and pigeon pea (tur) extended up to March 2024, making the exports stagnant, traders pointed out.
The new pigeon peas are entering the market at present.
Myanmar bagged over US$900 million from more than 1.12 million tonnes of pulses exports over the past nine months in the current financial year 2022-2023 (April-March). Of them, pigeon pea export earned $88.299 million from 110,407.657 kilogrammes, the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics showed.
Myanmar primarily exports black gram, green gram and pigeon peas. Of them, black gram and pigeon peas are mainly sent to India while green grams are shipped to China and Europe.
India has growing demand and consumption requirements for black gram and pigeon peas. According to a Memorandum of Understanding between Myanmar and India signed on 18 June 2022, India will import 250,000 tonnes of black gram and 100,000 tonnes of pigeon peas (tur) from Myanmar for five consecutive years from 2021-2022 financial year to 2025-2026FY. 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 yearly produces approximately 400,000 tonnes of black gram and about 50,000 tonnes of pigeon peas. Myanmar is the top producer of the black gram that is primarily demanded by India, while pigeon peas, green grams and chickpeas are cultivated in Australia and African countries besides Myanmar. — NN/EMM