Myanmar’s fishery exporters made adjustments in their market after trade in Muse ground to a halt due to a series of attacksby ethnic armed groups in Shan State, merchants said.
The prices of fisheries products are on the decline in the Muse market. Thousands of vises of live crabs, eels and prawns have spoiled by the delays. About 90 tonnes of crabs and over 8,000 visses of eels are exported daily to China through the Muse border trade camp. However, merchants have had to change routes because of the high possibility of delays due to the sporadic attacks in the Muse trade zone, it is learnt.
The Thailand market offers a higher price for 90-120 gram crabs than the China market. Therefore, the fishery merchants are now exporting crabs through Myawady. Some merchants have begun to export their fishery products through other border gates after freezing the fish, prawns and other fish products.
Crab exports in the 2011- 2012 fiscal year earned over US$100million. But income from crab exporting has slightly dropped year by year. Crab exports fetched only about US$40million in 2014-2015 whereas only about US$20million was earned from crab exports in 2015-2016, according to the statistics of the fishery department.
Source: Global New Light of Myanmar
