As Chinese authorities temporarily suspended imports without certificates from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ), more than 5,000 tonnes (around 100,000 sacks) of rice piled up at the Myanmar-China border over the past month.

Trucks could not go beyond Kyal Gaung area since April 3 and had to keep rice sacks in 10 warehouses with K200 for one sack.

Although AQSIQ certificates are being issued from April 20 after inspecting the rice stocks, traders are anticipating further losses.

“We are incurring losses on the warehouse rentals for earlier stockpiles. We cannot trade those as they have not been inspected and don’t have AQSIQ certificates. The first 100,000 sacks of rice haven’t passed customs inspections yet so we can’t export additional sacks due to the backlog," said U Min Thein, vice chair of Muse 105-mile Rice Wholesale Center.

Border trade has resumed in May and China allows importing rice up to 5 times more than last year, 50,000 tonnes of rice.

Source: The Myanmar Times