Myanmar (formerly Burma) earned $931.96 million in revenue from the sale of beans and pulses in the 8 months ending December 2023. In an announcement on December 26, the Ministry of Commerce partially attributed the income to the current 2023-24 market year.
These preliminary statistics hint at Myanmar scoring full-year results matching the earnings of the 2022-23 fiscal year worth $1.47 billion.
In 2022, the country exported 1.919 million tonnes of beans and pulses. The two crops constitute 30% of the nation’s agricultural output and only rice has a greater cultivation area.
The bulk of beans and pulses from Myanmar land in India, China and the European Union (EU). With India, especially, Myanmar enjoys government-to-government trade for beans, black beans, pigeon peas and green grams. Regional neighbors Nepal and Bangladesh also buy beans while the rest go to Taiwan, Japan, south-east Asia and the EU.
Dried legumes (beans, pulses and oilseeds) are the second biggest export for the Burmese government apart from petroleum gas. In 2021, the country exported $3.19 billion of petroleum gas followed by dried legumes worth $1.27 billion.
Beans and legumes emerged a major commercial commodity in as late as the 2020-21 financial year. During this period, the country raked in $1.5 billion by selling 2 million metric tonnes of the dried legumes.
Since 2021, Myanmar has retained the top position in South-east Asia for bean and pulses exports. It was also the 74th biggest global exporter of all goods, including non-agricultural, in the 2021-22 financial year.
The key export pulses include moong dal (yellow lentils), whose price was $1000 per tonne, Free-on-Board (FOB) in 2022. Urid Dal (black gram) and Urad Gota (lentils), on the other hand, cost $1125 per tonne/FOB during the same period. Moong beans (green grams) and beans cost the least, at $900 per metric tonne/FOB.
Ultimately for 2024, trade in dry legumes looks quite promising for Myanmar. For a start, the country has already exported 1.1 million tonnes of beans and pulses midway through the 2023-24 financial year.