Surajit Khaund (Mizzima News)
September 2, 2003

After a long wait, The Indian Food Ministry has granted permission to the Manipur government of the north east India to import rice from Burma .Now, the Manipur government will import 50,000 metric tonne of rice annually from Burma .All formalities in this regard have been completed and the first consignment likely to be reached within a couple of months.

The Food Ministry’s move came following recommendation of Expert Committee on Long Term Export and Import .The Committee in it’s report recently suggested the Food Ministry of importing rice in order to maintain the buffer food grain stock in the country.

Moreh , which is said to be the nerve center of border trade between India and Burma ,has a big rice market .The Burmese people come to the market early morning to sell to the Indian consumers and the popularity of the market is increasing day by day. The market has been on for the last 10 years and it’s emerging a major rice market in the northeast India. Though it is a daily market hundreds of people come various parts of the northeast India to buy rice for their quality.

Recently the Mizzima correspondent had an extensive tour to the bordering areas of Burma and found that Burmese Rice was more popular than the Indian varieties. There are three varities of rice are available in the market-Tilly-1, Kabocheng and Tilly-II which have a good demand among the masses.

While talking to this correspondent a Burmese trader said that about 200-300 tonne of rice are sold in the market. ”We collect our rice from various parts of Tamu and Namphalang area and sold in the market and response is tremendous”, he added.

What is more interesting is that 50 per cent of the demand is met by the Burmese rice in the northeast India. Despite abundance of potential, the rice production in the northeast is dwindling due to flood and other natural calamities. Moreover the Burmese rice can be stocked for a long time owing to lack of moisture content for which most of the people in the region have switched over to Burmese rice.

Burma is known as one of the major rice producing countries in Asia and it is earning a huge chunk of revenue by exporting rice.

Hailing the decision of the Food Ministry the Officer on Special Duty (OSD),Indo-Myanmar Trade Dwiju Mani Singh said that the import of rice would definitely improve the relation between India and Burma. Asked when the first consignment would reach Manipur, he informed that the government is keeping close touch with the Food Ministry to bring the consignment a early as possible. In this context he added that it was a long pending demand of the Manipur Government to import rice from Burma in order to curtail the transportation cost.