Nay Pyi Taw, 27 August
Myanmar is slated to export edible oil to foreign countries by 2025, while the country has to import more than 600 million USD worth of cooking oil from foreign countries every year because of the domestic demand and spend a lot of foreign currency.
At an economic committee meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on 25 August, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing also criticized that the previous civilian administration failed to supply sufficient edible oil for domestic consumption for years.
He also said that the state economic promotion fund was allotted to ensure local oil sufficiency, with a plan to increase the production of cooking oil at home in 2025.
A businessperson remarked the plan of junta chief is unrealistic.
He said, “Because the price of domestic cooking oil is higher than the cooking oil imported from abroad, the military leader’s plan is impossible in practice, and he should focus on domestic self-sufficiency rather than exporting it abroad”.
In addition, it is necessary to work with a systematic and long-term plan to ensure domestic self-sufficiency in edible oil, and because the oil crops cannot be grown in large numbers, it is not yet possible to export the oil abroad, he added.
The price of palm oil is set at 4,300 kyats per viss by the military council, but the price on the external market is over 11,000 kyats.
Myanmar mainly imports palm oil from Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia and exports a small amount of domestically produced peanut oil, sesame oil, sunflower oil, and other oil crops.
News-Than Lwin Times
Photo-MOI