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Monitoring the impact of COVID-19 in Myanmar: Rice millers – September 2020 survey round

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Мьянма
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IFPRI
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Joseph Goeb, Phoo Pye Zone, Nang Lun Kham Synt, Ame Cho, and Yulu Tang

To understand how Myanmar’s rice value chain has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, a series of telephone surveys were done with rice millers from Ayeyarwady, Bago, and Yangon. This report presents results from the third round of interviews conducted with 440 rice millers in early to mid-September 2020. This survey round captures the early effects of the second wave of COVID-19 as it began to spread widely across Myanmar. However, it does not capture the effects of the lockdowns that started on 21 September.

Key Findings

  • COVID-19 disruptions increased due to early lockdowns and transportation restrictions during the second wave of infections. The largest disruptions reported were in selling rice and buying paddy.
  • The share of millers reducing the operating time of their mills increased from 34 percent in early September to 51 percent in mid-September, partly attributable to COVID-19 restrictions but also to seasonal declines in paddy availability.
  • Adoption of safety practices decreased in September relative to what was reported in the August survey round despite an increase in COVID-19 cases.
  • Over the course of the COVID-19 crisis, about half of the millers reported year-on-year decreases in milling, paddy purchasing, and storage of rice and paddy.
  • Rice and paddy prices increased markedly between the August and the September survey rounds, while miller margins remained relatively stable.

Recommended Actions

  • Government should coordinate transportation restrictions across and within townships and states/regions to facilitate paddy and rice sales. A coordinated policy allowing freer crop movements would benefit the rural poor as well as urban consumers.
  • Safety practices to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus should be promoted for all businesses, including rice millers.
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