According to the local people, the rice prices in Irrawaddy, which mainly produces rice and produces the most rice, are causing difficulties for the grassroots and they are eating split rice.
The price of rice has risen significantly in a few days, and until the end of last November, a bag of fresh rice was 70,000 kyats. A bag of rough rice used to be only around 47,000 kyats, but currently, a bag of Porsan sweet rice costs between 110,000 and 125,000 kyats. It is reported that the price of a bag of rough rice has risen to between 79,000 and 95,000 kyats.
A resident of Ngaputaw Township said, "There is no price for what I sell. What I will buy is 3 times more expensive than before. Before, if you had 100,000, you could buy more than 2 bags of rice. Now I don't even want to get a Santa bag. In these days, it has risen. I think the price will go down because of the new rice. Now in the village, some people are drinking boiled rice. Some of them eat together in the morning and at night. There are people who have to eat broken rice because they can no longer eat rice. Even some people who could eat and drink only bought and ate good rice before the seizure of power, Por Sansan. Now, even to buy raw rice, I have to do a lot. "This is happening even in my own region, which produces the most rice," he said.
After the military coup, rice cultivation in Irrawaddy has decreased. It is reported that due to difficulties such as the inability to fully use agricultural medicines due to the skyrocketing prices, the yield of rice has decreased and the price of rice has increased.
In addition, despite the low production of local rice, the war council exported a large amount of rice to the foreign market last November, according to rice traders.
A rice merchant from Irrawaddy said, "The price of rice has gone up a lot. It's even worse these days. Trading is not convenient anymore. Famine is about to happen. The current price of rice is not good for selling and not good for buying. As it is, it is not easy. At present, it's a kind of broken rice, There are a lot of purchases of that broken rice. I can't eat rice anymore. It's not just the grassroots who are starving. People who can eat and drink have become hungry. "It's a consequence of the coup that I'm facing such a tragedy in Irrawaddy," he said.
This is the highest price in the Irrawaddy since the military coup, and it is the first time that the people of the Irrawaddy have to eat rice.
In order to control the skyrocketing price of rice, the base rice reference price was set last September, and the military council announced that those who store more than 1,000 bags of rice and 5,000 baskets of rice must be licensed.
