A trader displays a handful of black gram at the Bayint Naung Commodity Wholesale market in Yangon.

EXPORT volumes of beans and pulses are scheduled to increase in the current 2009-2010 financial year and will top last year’s export total of 1.5 million metric tonnes, according to experts.

The export of beans and pulses now stands at US$806 million in terms of value, General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, secretary (1) of the State Peace and Development Council, told traders last month in Nay Pyi Taw. The 2008-2009 figure was $747 million.

General Thiha Thura Tin Aung Myint Oo, who is also president of the Trade Council, said the area devoted to cultivating beans and pulses would increase to 10.5 million acres in 2009-2010 in order to stimulate further increases.

“In order to do this, we need to develop the whole supply-chain process from cultivation, harvesting, refining, trading, packaging, storing and exporting,” Dr Maung Aung, senior economist and researcher from the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries (UMFCCI) told The Myanmar Times.

“It is also essential in terms of quality, appearance, safety and price when it comes to the international market penetration of Myanmar beans and pulses,” Dr Maung Aung said.

Myanmar is the world’s second largest exporter of beans and pulses after Canada.

In 2008-2009, Myanmar exported 1.08 million metric tonnes of beans and pulses to India, which buys more than 73 percent of Myanmar’s total beans and pulses exports.

“India imported 40pc of its import of beans and pulses from Canada, 27pc from Myanmar, 9pc from Australia and 7pc from the United States,” said Dr Maung Aung.

The export of beans and pulses from Myanmar to India this year will be carried out through a new government-to-government program effective from the beginning of this financial year.

The industry expects the export volume of beans and pulses to reach about 1.7 million tonnes in 2009-2010, up from 1.5 million tonnes in 2008-09.