Farmers at work in the paddy fields. Photo - EPA

After opening its fifth outlet in Sagaing Region, Shwebo Rice Trading Center is planning to change its corporate status to public to be on par with other trading centers in Myanmar, U Phyo Thura, vice president of the company, told The Myanmar Times on July 10.

This will help elevate the center’s presence in the international market and make it easier to conduct export activities, he said.

Public companies are required to obtain permission from both the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration and the Securities Exchange Commission of Myanmar before they are officially allowed to sell their shares over the counter.

Unlike a private company, which has a shareholder limitation of not more than 50, there is no shareholder limit for public companies.

Currently, 70pc of rice from Shwebo, Sagaing, is exported to China via the border however there are strict quotas in place to limit illegal trade. To export via the maritime route, Shwebo is trying to conform to the rice import regulations set by China, he said.

“We plan to establish a public firm by next year and ensure all our rice mills are in line with regulations by the rice trading season next year,” U Phyo Thura said.

Shwebo land is suitable for irrigated paddy, the cultivation rate of which has increased after Thaphanseik Dam was built in 2003. There are about a million paddy fields in Shwebo, which is among the main producers of high-grade Paw San paddy in Myanmar. There are about 300,000 acres worth of paddy fields in Shwebo that harvest only the Paw San variety.

Myanmar exported more than 1.7million tonnes of rice and broken rice worth US$ 531.7million from October1, 2018 to June28, 2019 to Belgium, Indonesia, China and the Netherlands. 

In comparison, the country exported 3.6million tonnes of rice in 2016-17. – Translated