A 19-member Myanmar trade team will travel to Dubai to promote rice exports.

A NINETEEN-member Myanmar rice exporters’ team will head to Dubai on June 26 to attend the Middle East Africa and Asia Rice Summit 2009, on the lookout for new foreign buyers for Myanmar rice.

U Aung Than Oo, president of Myanmar Rice and Paddy Traders’ Association, and the delegation leader, told The Myanmar Times: “The three-day summit will be a good place to find direct foreign buyers for Myanmar rice.”

The world’s biggest rice exporter 50 years ago, Myanmar now gives equal focus to rice, beans and pulses, both in quantity and quality, according to the deputy minister for commerce.

Myanmar rice has been out of favour in the international market during recent decades, and fetches lower prices than that of its competitors, Thailand and Vietnam.

Officials from the Rice and Paddy Traders’ Association, the Rice Millers’ Association under the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI), together with big rice-exporting companies like Ayer Dipar, Max Myanmar, Gold Delta and Shwe War Yadanar are represented in the Myanmar delegation.

“This is not a government delegation but a private business delegation,” a member of the team said.

The purpose of the “rice summit”, which will be held from June 27-29, is to help major participating industry players to find new markets and strengthen existing relationships. Experts and analysts from the rice market from all over the world will attend, as well as representatives of all sectors in the field, from growers and millers to traders and freight brokers, government officials and bulk shippers.

One of the Myanmar delegation’s objectives will be to find buyers for a relatively new product line – basmati rice. India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, last year banned rice exports for internal reasons, reducing the supply of rice on the world market. Much of the gap thus created was filled by aggressive Vietnamese rice exporters, but Myanmar producers believe they may have a chance to export more rice. Participants in the summit hope to find out whether or not India will lift the ban.

Industry experts say the world will continue to consume at a rate faster than production growth, and supply is expected to lag behind demand. However, in the short term, overall world rice trade for 2009 is forecast to fall by 2pc to 29.2 million tonnes, largely due to a fall in demand from key Asian importers Philippines and Bangladesh.

Against this background, the summit will be looking at important regional issues, and how they affect larger questions surrounding the future of production and demand. For instance, strong competition from Vietnam is expected to encroach on Thai rice exports. However, Vietnam has reportedly suspended additional exports as the market is heavily oversold at the cheaper end and exporters are likely to find it hard to procure enough volume to ship against old commitments.