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Myanmar

Salt prices double, triple in Burma

Friday, 18 March 2011 21:06 Te Te

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A 200 percent price rise has hit the Rangoon salt market as a result of unseasonably heavy rains that have damaged salt producing fields.

On Thursday, the salt price shot up from 80 kyat (about US$ 1) to 180 kyat per viss (about 1.6 kilograms).

The Shan Herald news agency reported that the salt price in Muse near the Sino-Burmese border also increased up to 300 percent.

The unseasonably heavy rain came at a time when salt is being dried in the sun in salt producing fields in the Irrawaddy Division, resulting in scarcity, according to a salt factory owner in Rangoon.

"Currently, we don't want to sell the salt because of the unstable price', he said. 'But, the buyers are eager to buy'.

The retail price of cooking salt also skyrocketed from 250 kyat to 600 kyat per viss.

'Despite the high price, the demand has grown. For instance, one retailer who used to buy a box (that contains 48 packages of salt), bought five boxes. I have to limit the amount to be sold', said a salt-shop owner in Zaycho Market in Mandalay.

Recounting this year's weather pattern, a salt businessman in Moulmein in Mon State said: 'In January, the rain damaged the salt fields. And now we've had heavy rainfall in mid-March and it damaged the salt fields again. If the rain continues, we will face problems this year'.

He said the salt price last year was just 50 kyat per viss because of efficient production and good weather.

In the past, when salt prices rose in the Burmese local markets, traders would buy salt from Thailand, according to traders in Rangoon. But now, because of increased transportation costs, salt factories in Rangoon depend solely on salt produced in fields in Irrawaddy Division.

The season for salt production extends from January until May before the start of the monsoon season. Salt producing regions include Irrawaddy, Rangoon and Pegu divisions and Mon and Arakan states.

In 2008, in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, salt reached a record price of about 1,000 kyat per viss, because the cyclone destroyed the rice fields.