Myanmar to set up first international-level beans, pulses wholesale center

Myanmar to set up first international-level beans, pulses wholesale center
+ - 21:40, September 09, 2008

Myanmar will set up its first international-level beans and pulses wholesale center in the country in a bid to further penetrate the international market, the local weekly journal Pyi Myanmar reported Tuesday.

The project will be implemented by the biggest business organization -- the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), the report said, adding that the UMFCCI has appealed to the domestic merchants to take part in the move.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar authorities have called for extended cultivation of marketable beans and pulses as a continued effort to maintain the status that such Myanmar crops have earned a good reputation for its quality in local and international market.



Noting that Myanmar beans and pulses have gained a foothold in the international market, the authorities urged boosting export of the crops as well as fetching handsome prices through extensive cultivation of quality strains of crops and use of fertilizers and pesticide.

Myanmar's five divisions and states of Ayeyawaddy, Bago, Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway are extensively growing beans an pulses that are marketable at home and abroad with the latter three divisions growing the crops on a commercial scale.

In addition, large-scale cultivation of soya bean is also being introduced as it is found in demand in the foreign markets, it added.

Merchants trading agricultural crops in Myanmar are also planning to set up special beans, pulses and sesame cultivation zones across the country to develop such crops production and boost export.

Beans and pulses are among the 10 major items of agricultural crops that Myanmar grow. Among them, gram, lablab bean, pigeon pea, butter bean and soya bean are cultivated most in the country.

The export items of beans and pulses cover green gram, pigeon pea, soya bean, cow pea and Myehtaukpe.

Myanmar has become the second largest beans and pulses exporter in the world after Canada and topped beans exporter in Asia with India standing as Myanmar's largest buyer of the crops which accounted for 72 percent of Myanmar's total beans export.

According to figures of the Central Statistical Organization, in 2007-08, Myanmar exported 1.177 million tons of various items of beans and pulses including Matpe, Pedesein, Pesingon, Gram, Sesamum seeds and Niger seeds, earning a total of 670 million U.S. dollars.

Since 1988-89, the cultivated area of beans and pulses has gradually grown year by year, reaching over 3 million hectares so far.

Beans and pulses, like other agricultural crops such as rice, stand as one of the mainstay of the country's economy.

Source:Xinhua