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Myanmar's Rice Export Falls 16 Perc



Myanmar's Rice Export Falls 16 Percent in 6 Months

Xinhua, Rangoon,  September 24, 2000. Myanmar exported
a total of 32, 200 tons of rice in the first six months of this year,
falling by 16.1 percent from the same period of 1999 when it
registered at 38, 400 tons, according to the latest
figures of the country's Central Statistical Organization.

In 1999, Myanmar exported 63,700 tons of rice, a drop also
from 111,700 tons in 1998, indicating a trend of down-sliding
in the export.

To meet its food demand, Myanmar has since January 1999
reclaimed 467,370 hectares of vacant, virgin, fallow and wetlands
in the country's six divisions and states for cultivation by private
entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, more reclamation of such lands in two other states
and divisions are also being planned in four years' time beginning
April 2001, the start of the next fiscal year.

Myanmar has abundance of cultivable land stretching 18.22 million
hectares, of which only 9.31 million are under cultivation while 8.91
million remained utilized.

The country's agriculture accounts for 37 percent of the gross
domestic product and 25 percent of the export value.