Market Morsel: Burmese spat

Market Morsel

Myanmar (formerly Burma) was under military control for decades until the start of the last decade. The introduction of democracy and the opening up to the world signalled the potential for Myanmar to grow its fortunes and economy similar to many of its nearby neighbours.

Unfortunately, recent years have been marred in controversy from allegations of the genocide of Rohingya people to the recent allegations by the military of vote fraud in the 2020 election. The result has been a military coup.

There are many uncertainties at present about what will happen in Myanmar, but the military has seized control and imposed a one year state of emergency. This has caused a large degree of concern from the international community, will this lead to sanctions or reduce economic activity?

What does Australia export to Myanmar?

In recent years 60% of all export value to Myanmar has been in the form of wheat. This makes wheat the most important product in our trade with Myanmar.

The volume of wheat heading to Myanmar has been growing in recent years, and before the recent droughts, Australia was the largest provided. Whilst we are a critical supplier for Myanmar, they do not hold a massive significance to our trade.

Myanmar’s market share of total Australian wheat export volumes have averaged 2% over the past decade.