Rice prices skyrocket

April 8, 2008

Rice prices are rising drastically, says a rice vendor in Three Pagoda Pass, on the Thai-Burma border.

“In the first week of March the price for a sixty kilogram bag was six hundred and fifty baht. By the middle of March the price was seven hundred and fifty. Today, the price is
eight hundred and fifty,” the rice vendor said.

While much of Southeast Asia is facing rice shortages, the rising prices in Burma are being attributed to bad weather in the last growing season. Heavy rains in October destroyed thousands of acres of rice paddy.

“My farm used to produce eight hundred baskets of rice. This year is only produced six hundred. An acre of land usually produces fifty baskets. This year the land only produced about forty,” said A Aie, a farmer from Mudon Township, in North Mon State.

The majority of the people hurt by the rising prices live in cities and have to buy rice for daily consumption. Mi Phoe Lay, from Kalawthut village, Mudon township, explained that she had to sell a ring to raise funds so that she could afford rice for her family.

A rice trader from Mudon township said that most local people were not hurt by the rice shortage because they bought rice supplies early, before prices rose.

In the past, rice shortages have lead to popular uprisings – a situation the current regime does not want to encouraged. With this in mind, the military government changed policy and did not levy its usual rice taxes, allowing farmers to store rice and counteract shortages.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News