CNI News

20 September 2024

All the rice shops including small ones all over the country must register for the permit to store, an official from the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders Association told CNI News.

Bigger rice shops have been asked to register for storage since November, 2023 and those who store 50 tons of rice and above or 5,000 baskets of paddy and above must register, released by the government in June 2024.

But now, even small rice shops must register for storage permit and it had not been clear whether small rice shops would be exempted from registration fee or not, said an official from the Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders Association, told CNI News.

" In the past, those who stored 1,000 bags of rice and above were instructed to register. But now, as authorities want to know all the storage lists of the people who sell rice, all the rice shops are asked to register. The Ministry of Commerce has formed an organization that will verify. I heard that those who store 200 to 300 bags of rice will be exempted from the registration fee. First, those who store 1,000 bags of rice and 5,000 baskets of paddy must pay the registration fee." he said.

While seeing a rice brokers' sales center

The ministry instructed rice shops to register the storage to ensure rice security within the country, to make the rice market and the price stable, to register the rice storage systematically and to implement a financial supporting system based on handing over goods to the storehouse, said the Ministry of Commerce.

At present, because of Typhoon Yagi, over 600,000 cultivated acres were damaged. So, because the paddy yield might decline by the million baskets of paddy, the ministry might have asked the rice shops to register the rice storage to know the amount of rice consumption and it wanted to control the price speculations, Ko Zaw Min Naing, an agricultural and economic advisor told CNI News.

" They might want to know the data regarding the reserve rice. When the country face a natural disaster like this, the demand tends to rise and the prices of rice tend to rise as well, which they seem to prevent. Although rice merchants only were asked to register in the past, now they seem to control the market. And they might be a little in need of reserve rice. They might want to weigh the necessary amount of rice for the future and the current amount." he said.

The number of storehouses registered up to 23rd June, 2024 of companies were 213 as well as 513, of individual entrepreneurs. So, 726 storehouses have been registered, according to the ministry.