UMFCCI plans to cultivate ginger in Rakhine State as a pilot project in March 2018 to strengthen export

Union of Myanmar Chambers of Com­merce and Indus­try (UMFCCI) is planning to start growing ginger in Kyauktaw, Ponna Kyun, Buthidaung and Maung­daw townships in Rakh­ine State as a pilot project in March 2018 in cooper­ation with Rakhine State Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Indus­try, Rakhine State govern­ment, local residents and private partners.

UMFCCI visited Rakhine State on December 14th and met local people to talk about what they needed.

Rakhine State Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry will support with 1,000 visses which are relevant to 1,630 kilograms and Myanmar Fruit, Flow­er and Vegetable Produc­ers and Exporters Associa­tion will provide technical assistance. Rakhine State Federation of Cooperative Association and Public Company will implement a pilot project in four town­ships.

‘‘We will encourage lo­cal people to plant more when the pilot projects become successful. In ad­dition, we will try to work out insurance agreements between the traders and the cultivators,’’ U Aung Aung, Secretary of Rakh­ine State Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said.

Ginger is exported to Bangladesh in addition to domestic use, the volume of exported ginger is $3 million. As it is generally grown in southern Shan State, it would be more economical if ginger was grown in Rakhine which is close to Bangladesh, this would reduce trans­portation costs.

‘‘The weather and soil condition in Rakhine State is very suitable for growing ginger. I am sure that the production will be pretty good. For other markets, we have the potential to export to countries such as U.S, Netherlands, and Germa­ny. But we currently can’t meet the demand from Bangladesh,” U Kyaw Thu, Secretary of Myanmar Fruit, Flower and Vegeta­ble Producers and Export­ers Association, said.

“Rakhine State govern­ment is collecting ag­ricultural data and will work on laying out a plan to increase ginger pro­duction,” according to U Kyaw Aye Thein, Minister for Rakhine State Min­istry of Planning and Fi­nance, said.

The cost of growing gin­ger per acre is between K1 million to K1.5 million and the production rate per acres is around 8,000 visses relevant to 13,040 which worth, according to the present price is be­tween K4 million to K5 million.

(Myanmar Business Today: https://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/rakhine-state-plans-cultivate-ginger-strengthen-export )

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