Due to the low supply to the Yangon rice market, the prices of glutinous rice have risen early this year according to the rice sales centers in Yangon. In early February, the wholesale price of a 24-pyi bag of glutinous rice was around 180,000 kyats but now it has reached around 195,000 kyats per bag.
The price increase is not because of a higher demand but it is because the market is facing shortage of supplies. The trading in the market is quite sparse, and those who buy hundreds of bags of glutinous rice to be stored are hardly seen this year, an official of Shwe Moe Rice Trading Centre.
There has been a low supply of glutinous rice to Yangon as well as a shortage of broken glutinous rice in the market, which could not set the opening price in the market, some rice wholesalers said.
At the end of January, a 24-pyi bag of glutinous rice was sold for 120,000 to 130,000 kyats at the wholesale market while the retail market price was around 3,000 kyats per bag.
