Going with the grain
Thailand’s disastrous farm subsidies scheme has created a lucrative market for the rice smugglers of Myanmar’s Myawaddy, writes David Eimer. Pictures by Andrew Chant
Business has never been better for the rice smugglers of Myawaddy. The scruffy, dusty Myanmese border town is separated from Mae Sot, in Thailand, by a narrow stretch of the Moei River. It takes just minutes to travel between the two countries and every night the traffickers take advantage of that proximity to smuggle what they coyly call “chicken feed” across the river.
Myawaddy has long been known as an illicit trading hub for drugs, guns and precious gems, but “rice is the main item being smuggled from Myawaddy now”, says Brother Tone, 42, who has been running the grain into Thailand for six years.
“The Thais want rice from Myanmar because it is cheaper than Cambodian or Laotian rice and it’s not hard to get it into Thailand.”
At a compound on the outskirts of Myawaddy patrolled by soldiers belonging to Myanmar’s national border guard, lines of trucks are pulled up close to the river bank. Sacks of rice are swiftly unloaded by labourers and transferred to boats.
“We started sending ‘chicken feed’ across to Thailand in big quantities about three or four years ago,” says border guard commander Major San Jo as he sits in his makeshift office watching Myanmese music videos with his revolver by his side. “Generally, we send about 100 sacks at a time. Each sack is 50 kilos.”
Fifty kilograms of rice is worth 25,000 kyat (HK$200) in Myawaddy, but in Thailand, the same amount sells for 1,500 baht (HK$370). It is that huge disparity in price that is driving the thriving trade.
An estimated 500,000 to 750,000 tonnes of rice is being smuggled into Thailand annually, almost all of it from neighbouring Myanmar and Cambodia. It is the equivalent of trafficking tea to China or opium to Afghanistan, because, until last year, Thailand was the world’s leading rice exporter – a position it proudly held for 30 years.