India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry informed Myanmar last week that it is maintaining a ban on imports of beans.
Myanmar’s Office of the Commissioner of Customs was informed last Thursday that the imports of peas (yellow peas, green peas, dun peas and Kaspa peas) and pulses (black matpe, toor dal) from Myanmar were to be halted.
The announcement from India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the import ban would be effective immediately but did not state how long it would be in place.
This ban impacts exports of bean crops from Myanmar, Canada and Australia’s to India.
The Indian government announced officially last June that it would limit imports of beans to 150,000 tonnes of mung bean, 200,000 tonnes of pigeon peas, and 150,000 tonnes of black bean over three months. Up to August last year, Myanmar alone exported 150,000 tonnes of mung bean to India, while Myanmar, Africa and Australia exported pigeon pea and black to the sub-continent.
Due to demand last September, Indian traders obtained permission to import green gram and pigeon pea, and around 300,000 tonnes of green gram and 50,000 tonnes of pigeon pea were exported from Myanmar, said the Myanmar Pulses, Beans and Sesame Seeds Merchants Association (MPBSMA).
Similarly, the Indian merchants imported beans from Myanmar in January, after obtaining permission from the Indian governments.
However, due to last Thursday’s announcement, beans that had been shipped after January 28 and arrived in India on January 31, were not accepted, said MPBSMA Secretary U Min Ko Oo.
“They are prohibiting trading according to their will and the farmers in our country suffer from it,” U Min Ko Oo said.
Because of prohibition, the price for a tonne of green gram in Myanmar, whihc was around K700,000 last week, dropped to K570,000 on February 1, he said.
Similarly, the price for a tonne of pigeon pea was K750,000 last week, but now is only around K680,000.
Source :- Mmtimes.com
