Bamboo from Arakan to Bangladesh hits pandemic slowdown in 2020-21 financial year

By DMG 11 Oct 2021

DMG Newsroom
11 October 2021, Maungdaw  

Bamboo from Arakan State has been exported to Bangladesh through the Maungdaw border trade centre annually, but cannot be exported in the 2020-21 financial year. 

Operations at the border trade centre were suspended as of the first week of July 2020 due to the second wave of Covid-19, but reopened briefly on April 12, 2021, when the infection rate declined. 

It was opened for only about three months in the 2020-21 financial year, however, because it was again suspended on July 15, 2021, due to the third wave of Covid-19. 

“The border trade centre operated for three months and there was no export of bamboo to Bangladesh because traders were not ready to trade bamboo,” U Thar Tun Sein, assistant director of Maungdaw border trade centre, told DMG. 

The price of bamboo is increasing at the moment because of the rise in commodity prices in Arakan State, said U Aung Tun Thein, who is selling bamboo in Thayet Shwe village. He sells bamboo from Ponnagyun Township to different areas. 

“The price of bamboo is increasing because of the price rises of other commodities and fuel oil. A bunch of 100 bamboo, 18 feet long, rose to more than K30,000, from about K25,000 in the past,” he said. 

A total of 1,187 tonnes of bamboo, worth $94,000, were exported to Bangladesh in the 2018-19 financial year, but only about 572 tonnes of bamboo, worth $45,000, were exported in the 2019-20 financial year.