Thursday, June 23, 2011

Seafood Processing Plants Shut Down, as Low Dollar Takes its Toll

Wednesday, June 22, 2011
RANGOON—Around 20 marine-product processing plants in Burma have temporarily suspended their operations, as the US dollar's decline against the kyat begins to eat into the value of overseas earnings, according to industry sources.
Since early June, the dollar has fallen below 800 kyat for the first time in many years, reaching just 785 kyat on the foreign exchange market at one point on Wednesday. The dollar's drop has hurt exporters, with many companies saying that they are barely breaking even, or in many cases actually losing money.
The appreciation of the Burmese currency against the dollar has been especially hard on the marine export business, according to Win Kyaing, the secretary of the Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF), an umbrella body of private-sector fishery associations in Burma.

No comments:

Post a Comment