“My sick husband and I have to starve on some days so that we have enough to feed our children,” says Ma Aye Mya.
Since early July, the mother of seven children has cut the amount of rice she cooks for the family as their daily income no longer covers the soaring cost of food and other necessities.
She used to cook 3 kilos of rice every day for the nine family members but can now only afford 2.2 kilos after the price doubled over the past two years.
Prices of other staples like meat and vegetables have also surged, pushing Myanmar people like Ma Aye Mya into trouble.
“We simply don’t have enough food,” she told The Irrawaddy.
Ma Aye Mya, aged around 40, earns a living sifting garbage for recyclable materials that she can sell to traders. Her husband can’t work due to health problems, meaning that she is the head of the family. Ma Aye Mya and her younger daughter wheel out their trash cart early each morning to collect recyclables in eastern Dagon Township, Yangon, where they live.
The family’s daily income is supplemented by her elder daughter who works at a garment factory, but still only amounts to 10,000 kyats (US$ 3). That meager sum is no longer enough to cover food bills.
“We don’t have enough rice and curry to eat,” Ma Aye Ma told the Irrawaddy.
Survival priority as food security dwindles
Myanmar has been in social and political turmoil since the military ousted the elected civilian government in February 2021. For more than two years now, the steep depreciation of the kyat and rocketing inflation caused by regime mismanagement have led to soaring food and fuel prices that have hit grassroots people like Ma Aye Mya hardest.
Last month, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on two regime-controlled banks, the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB). The announcement saw the exchange rate surge to nearly 3,200 kyats per US dollar, more than doubling its level before the coup. The rate in January 2021 was 1,300 kyats per dollar.
The kyat fell even further to nearly 3,500 per dollar on July 23 after the central bank announced it would begin issuing a new 20,000-kyat banknote on July 31.
Since the coup, the price of Myanmar people’s main staple rice has more than doubled, while palm oil used for cooking has more than tripled.
In January 2021, a bag of quality Paw San Hmwe rice cost 50,000 kyats; it has now risen to 128,000 kyats. Palm oil cost 2,500 kyats per viss (1.6 kg) before the coup; the same quantity now costs 9,000 kyats.
During the same period, prices for basic foods such as potatoes have increased four to six times in local markets.
A housewife in Yangon said she also has been forced to cut her food purchases due to soaring prices. In 2021 January, she spent 5,000 kyats per day to feed her family, but that now risen to 1,5000 kyats – which does not cover rice and oil.
“How can we get enough to eat every day when something like a bunch of watergrass costs 600 kyats,” the mother of two told The Irrawaddy.
A bunch of watergrass, one of the most popular vegetables in Myanmar, cost 200 kyats before the military coup. The price of an egg has also jumped, from 100 kyats before the putsch to around 300 kyats now.
Many housewives are now buying cheaper vegetables rather than meat and fish, whose price has doubled over the past two years, she added.
“We are now eating to survive, rather than choosing what we want to eat,” one housewife told The Irrawaddy.
Inflation impacts have been exacerbated by Myanmar’s employment situation.
The World Bank reports Myanmar has suffered weak employment growth since 2017, with the dual shocks of Covid-19 and the military coup likely to have partially reversed previous growth. While around 9 million people were added to Myanmar’s working-age population between 2017 and 2022, employment only grew by 2 million over the period, it said.
The weakening labor market plus the sharp inflation rise have put significant pressure on household incomes, resulting in deepening hardship across the country.
A World Bank survey in May found that 48 percent of Myanmar’s farming households worry about not having enough food to eat, up from about 26 percent a year earlier. The bank’s June report said high food inflation and reduced incomes mean that food security and nutrition worsened further during the first half of 2023.
Decreased supply
The increase in food prices is coupled with falling supply in the market, a grocery store owner in Yangon told The Irrawaddy.
“The supply is significantly reduced as demand from housewives has halved,” he said.
Meanwhile, food vendors’ profits are being squeezed as wholesale prices rise.
“The prices change each time we go to the trade market,” the grocer complained.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged the soaring commodity prices during a meeting with the Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI) on July 2.
He said that due to an imbalance of supply and demand, as well as high production costs, the price of goods was higher than it should be. He called for an increase in agricultural and livestock production, saying this would support domestic consumption and exports.
A business analyst pointed out that the junta boss has been making the same plea to accelerate agricultural production since the coup.
“He can’t just say the words and expect production to increase. Support behind the scenes is crucial. Currently, farmers cannot get loans for farmers and the prices of their raw materials are rising,” the analyst told the Irrawaddy.
The situation has been worsened by the junta’s inability to control the kyat’s value, he added.
However, most people blame the surge in commodity prices on the regime’s mismanagement and use of brute force to rule the country.
“Although they want to rule the country, they have no brains,” a resident of Sagaing’s Depayin Township told The Irrawaddy.
She said her village now relies on free food handed out by the local monastery as people can no longer afford to buy their own.
“Before, we didn’t have to ask for food from the monastery like this. We have never experienced such a thing,” she told The Irrawaddy.
Sagaing Region is the site of frequent junta atrocities against civilians that have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Many of the displaced are struggling to get enough to eat and are unable to return to daily work like farming. Already in crisis, they are now being hit by the rising food prices, said Ko Nay Thura, a spokesperson for a Khin-U Township local aid group.
“As the price of rice has more than doubled in our region, residents are relying on public support,” Ko Nay Thura told The Irrawaddy.
Like them, Yangon resident Ma Aye Mya asks people she meets on her trash-collection round if they can spare food for her children.
“A few days ago, I was so happy when I found a family who were willing to donate rice and oil,” she said.
