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