Myanmar’s parboiled rice exports are likely to surge to 300,000 tonnesin the fiscal year 2014-15, which starts from April, said the MyanmarRice Industry Association.

The figure is up almost nine times from the mere 30,000 tonnes shipped abroad in the previous fiscal year.

Apartfrom the increasing foreign demand for parboiled rice, the governmentis keen on increasing the local market for the food source.
It is raising the capacity of parboiled rice to sell in the country to300,000 tonnes per annum, according to the Myanmar Agribusiness PublicCorporation.

The government has completed 90 percent ofconstruction of new parboiled mills, which are expected to be readybefore the monsoon harvest.

Ten imported steam-rice machinesfrom Japan, which can produce up to 1,800 tonnes of parboiled rice perday, are being installed in these mills. Rice mills with smallercapacities of 50 tonnes and 100 tonnes per day are also beingconstructed.

Additionally, the Health Ministry and the RiceMiller Association of Myanmar have launched a campaign to promote thelocal consumption of parboiled rice due to the health and cost benefits.

Theassociation’s secretary, U Thaung Win, said that parboiled rice is morenutritious as it contains vitamin C, adding that it is 15 percentcheaper than white rice. Parboiled rice is produced by steaming anddrying the grain before it is crushed, retaining its nutrients unlikewhite rice, which has more broken rice content. In addition, the vitaminB1 content in white rice is reduced when rinsed, but not in parboiledrice.-VNA