Watermelon-Mango-a

One in five watermelon trucks remains undamaged due to long queue

As watermelon trucks heading to China is facing long queues, most of the watermelons turned bad. Only one in five trucks are left undamaged with quality watermelon, said U Sai Khin Maung from the Khwanyo Fruit Depot. A kilogramme of watermelon is priced at 6-7 Yuan at present. “The news of watermelon fetching a good price is spreading on the social network. It is real that the traders receive 6-7 Yuan per kilo. However, we cannot expect how many quantities remained in good condition. About 20-tonne truckloads of watermelons are left unhurt out of 5-6 trucks in the previous days. Such an unfortunate event will happen again upon the prolonged delay triggered by the driver-substitution system at the border.

We cannot predict anything in the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the price drops, the warehouse owners will suffer great loss amid the high transportation charges,” U Sai Khin Maung stressed. The market will raise its head only after reducing delays in China sides, getting entry permits for Myanmar shorthaul drivers to the market beyond Chinese drivers and cutting the red-tape and trade barriers in Myanmar sides, he continued. Additionally, the Muse 105th mile fruit centre notified on 16 December that watermelons of inferior quality and rotten ones will be rejected by Chinese counterparts and quality plays a pivotal role in trade. Furthermore, the truck drivers must get vaccinated two times and they must present the vaccination certification to the authorities, according to the centre. Quality deterioration occurred owing to a 20-days wait.

On 9 December, some watermelon trucks out of 26 in the first batch entered the market and four truckloads of watermelon were sold at 90,000 Yuan, the Khwanyo Fruit Depot stated. The watermelons can be offered a higher price for better quality, U Sai Khin Maung elaborated. He urged the exporters to figure out the queue times rather than the price. In addition to COVID-19 restriction measures, Chinese customs regulations resulted in delays. That is why both the growers and traders have to carefully observe the market conditions before harvesting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, trade facilitation is unlikely to happen according to China’s trade policy. Trade will go back to normality after China eases the rule and restriction measures for COVID-19. Kyinsankyawt border post between Myanmar and China, which was previously closed down from 8 July, has been reopened starting from 26 November on a trial run.

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

daily11-jan07-2020-akk01

MAI, Air KBZ to fly Yangon-Sittway and Yangon-Thandwe daily

Myanmar Airways International (MAI) and Air KBZ will fly Yangon-Sittway and Yangon Thandwe flights daily for domestic travellers, according to the press release of the airlines. These airlines will run the Yangon-Kyaukpyu flight every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. To control the spread of COVID-19, the country has extended the COVID-19 entry restriction for most international travellers until 31 December, according to the statement of the Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19.

All of these restrictions were extended until the end of November 2021 earlier, but the restriction has now been extended until 31 December to implement more effective measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreigners travelling for urgent reasons, including diplomatic issues, may contact a Myanmar diplomatic mission to receive an exemption. However, the travellers must produce a negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken within 72 hours before arrival.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, the international passenger aircraft will not be allowed to operate at Yangon International Airport until 31 December to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Myanmar via air travel Myanmar has received US$69.2 million as revenue from e-Visa and over 1.7 million tourists applied for e-Visa from 2016 to August 2020, according to the official data of the Ministry of Immigration and Population. Myanmar has reported a total of 528,380 COVID-19 infections, with 19,226 deaths as of 21 December. At the same time, a total of 505,761 patients have been recovered from the virus.

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar