MYANMAR is preparing to export the fish to distant shores of Russia after a trade delegation that visited earlier this month agreed to buy domestically produced fish.

When the deal is finalised it will be the first such agreement between Russian traders and exporters in Myanmar.

The Russian team and an official from the Myanmar Fishery Products Processors and Exporters Association held discussions on February 13 and signed a memorandum of understanding on February 16, an association official said.

“The Russian team wants to buy about 2000 tonnes of filleted Pangush a month initially,” added a Department of Fisheries official.

He said that if the buyers are happy with the quality of the fish and can meet demand, there is a strong likelihood that exports will be expanded in the future.
As part of the deal signed on February 16, both sides will review pricing set every three months and adjust these according to the prevailing market conditions.

U Kyee Ngwe, the association’s vice president, said that although the Russian buyers want about 2000 tonnes a month, the Myanmar side is currently unable to meet that demand.

“Currently, we’ve agreed to send about 200 tonnes a month as we cannot produce the 2000 they want.

“When we discussed this deal with our fish farmers, they told us that they need at least nine or 10 months to gradually scale their production upward. But we will certainly be doing everything we can to meet demand earlier than this,” he said.

He said the Russia market offers massive potential for Myanmar’s fisheries products, including pangush fillets.

“The MPEA is always looking for markets for that fish, even though we’ve never found any viable options in the past. Now we are happy to have located what is a huge potential market in Russia,” U Kyee Ngwe said.

He said the Russia team said during their visit that they were impressed with Myanmar’s fisheries products, saying they were of a high quality and came from clean habitats compared with operations in neighbouring countries.

“They said they have imported a lot of fisheries products from Bangladesh and China previously but later found that some of these actually originated in Myanmar. So they decided to buy directly from us and cut out the middle-men,” he said.

U Kyee Ngwe said an association export delegation would soon visit Russia to further explore the market and discuss deals with potential buyers, adding that they will be taking with them plenty of samples.