A Study of Market Opportunities for Potential Investors in ... informasjon/Myanmar Market... · A...

A Study of Market Opportunities for

Potential Investors in Aquaculture Production, Technology and Services in

Myanmar with a Focus on Marine Aquaculture Sector in the

Rakhine and Tanintharyi Regions. CASE NO. 1501379

Prepared by

RR Consult for Norad, June 2016

Potential and constraints for investments in marine aquaculture sector in Myanmar

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Table of contents

1 Executive Summary, main findings and recommendations ....................................................... 5

2 Background and scope of study .............................................................................................. 6

3 Approach to the assignment .................................................................................................. 8

4 Profile of the Myanmar aquaculture sector ............................................................................. 9

4.1 Production overview ...................................................................................................... 9

4.2 Overview of present farming practices .......................................................................... 10

4.2.1 Freshwater fish..................................................................................................... 10

4.2.2 Giant freshwater prawn ........................................................................................ 14

4.2.3 Softshell crab ....................................................................................................... 15

4.2.4 Spiny lobster ........................................................................................................ 19

4.2.5 Shrimp ................................................................................................................. 20

4.2.6 Marine fish........................................................................................................... 21

4.2.7 Other marine organism ......................................................................................... 25

4.3 Value chains and market observations .......................................................................... 26

4.3.1 Midstream ........................................................................................................... 27

4.3.2 Upstream ............................................................................................................. 27

4.3.3 Downstream – domestic and export market observations....................................... 31

4.4 Institutional framework and research and development ................................................ 34

4.5 Human resources and labourer..................................................................................... 36

4.6 Legislation and regulatory framework ........................................................................... 37

4.6.1 Legislation regarding starting a (marine) fish farm .................................................. 37

4.6.2 Legislation regarding foreign investor in Myanmar ................................................. 38

4.6.3 Examples of foreign company investors in (marine) aquaculture ............................. 39

4.7 Financing and incentives .............................................................................................. 40

5 Overview of marine farming potential in Tanintharyi and Rakhine Regions ............................. 40

5.1 Rakhine state............................................................................................................... 40

5.1.1 Climate conditions ................................................................................................ 41

5.1.2 Area resources/sheltering/depths/environment..................................................... 46

5.1.3 Cultural and socio-economic issues........................................................................ 48

5.1.4 Present or historical aquaculture and seafood activities .......................................... 49

5.1.5 Infrastructure ....................................................................................................... 50

5.2 Tanintharyi .................................................................................................................. 50


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5.2.1 Climate conditions ................................................................................................ 50

5.2.2 Area resources/sheltering/depths/environment/riverine impact............................. 53

5.2.3 Cultural and socio-economic issues........................................................................ 55

5.2.4 Present or historical aquaculture activities ............................................................. 56

5.2.5 Infrastructure ....................................................................................................... 56

5.3 Potential species.......................................................................................................... 57

5.3.1 Marine fish, potential large-volume species ........................................................... 57

5.3.2 Others: bivalves and seaweed ............................................................................... 60

5.4 NGO’s relevant to marine fish farming .......................................................................... 62

6 Myanmar aquaculture in a regional context .......................................................................... 62

7 Challenges in developing marine fish farming ....................................................................... 64

8 Interest of Myanmar companies and authorities ................................................................... 65

9 Potential Norwegian role in improvement of the value chain ................................................. 65

Annex 1: Mission program and people met .................................................................................. 69

Annex 2: Foreign Investment Policy and Procedures ..................................................................... 75

Annex 3: List of Norwegian companies shown a regional interest .................................................. 79

Annex 4: Terms of Reference....................................................................................................... 80

Annex 5: Reference list ............................................................................................................... 85

List of acronyms and abbreviations:

Acre 1 acre = 0.4047 ha

APFC Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission (FAO)

CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

DoF Department of Fisheries (Myanmar)

DICA Directorate of Investment and Company Administration

EU European Union

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FDI Foreign Direct Investment

FCR Feed Conversion Rate i.e. ratio of kg feed needed to produce 1kg fish

GEF Global Environmental Facility under UNDP

Ha 1 hectare = 2.47 acres

HDPE High Density Poly Ethylene (pipes for cages)

IQF Individual Quick Frozen

JV Joint Venture

KMK A Myanmar company name

Knot 1 knot = 0.5 m/s

MFF Myanmar Fisheries Federation

MIC Myanmar Investment Committee

MLFRD Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development


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MMK1 Myanmar Kyat (01.05.16: MMK 1,187 = USD 1)

NOK Norwegian Kroner (01.05.16: NOK 8.072 = USD 1)

Norad Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation

ODA Overseas Development Assistance

ppt parts per thousand (e.g. salinity)

PPT A Myanmar company name, Pyay Phoe Tun Co., Ltd, Myeik

RFF Rakhine State Fisheries Federation under MMF

THB Thai Baht (01.05.16: THB 34.98 = USD 1)

ToR Terms of Reference

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organization

USD US Dollar

Viss 1 viss = 1.6 kg

1 Currency exchange rates from OANDA.com


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1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY, MAIN FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It is a critical moment for Myanmar; this was stated by several informants. Since beginning of 2016

the new government in Myanmar is starting from scratch, after the country has been suffering 50

years of military regime. The use of the natural aquatic resources was based on a pure exploratory

approach, and the government sector only focused on getting a share by collecting fees or leases.

Nothing was reinvested into research and development or competence building of staff within

science-based fisheries and aquaculture management for the last 36 years. As a result the research

and development capacity within fisheries and aquaculture in the country is nearly absent. De Facto

there is no sector institute dealing with aquaculture technology or management, and this for a

country supposedly producing nearly 1 million tons of aquaculture products. Several universities

have marine departments, but only one teaches aquaculture. UNDP’s GEF are said to establish a

Marine Resource Institute in 2017 in SE of Myanmar, but details and mandate have not been

available.

The new government is revising laws and regulations, and new ones are published nearly every two

weeks. This includes the investment law and fisheries law, which have been drafted and are being

appraised by a “legislative reviewing” committee. The new investment law will open for 100%

foreign ownership. Information about the draft fisheries law is not detailed, but seems to open for longer term site leases.

Norway has the policy that aid by itself is not the engine for development, while focus should be

given long term, sustainable development of livelihoods, through private sector development, as

well as through the development of the institutional framework, which can support this sector development.

The study presents (Chapter 9) some of the commercial opportunities identified within the value

chain, which have a potential to be improved and bring better sustainability to the sector, and where

Norwegian companies and investors could contribute.

Myanmar has very large coastal area resources, but the potential has not been exploited for

aquaculture apart from one small, corporate marine fish farm and a few small-scale ‘holding’ cages

for live fish. Thus it is a good opportunity for Myanmar to avoid the mistakes made in other

countries and get things right from the start.

One strategy for ‘getting things right’ is to attract a Norwegian investor in marine fish farming with

operational and management experience, who could make the technology transfer. As an investor

there will be ample and highly potential areas available and little biosecurity risk from small-scale

marine fish farms, as they are absent, which is different from other countries in the region.

Even when it will be possible to hold 100% foreign ownership, a foreign competent investor may be

in control of the production performance of the company, but Myanmar has a very challenging and

changing legal and administrative environment, and there will be many issues, where a foreign

investor would depend on a local network and legal advices to appreciate, how to administrate the company towards the public sector.

Therefore it may be the better solution to enter a JV with a competent, local partner and investor,

who can bring into the partnership the understanding of manoeuvring in a country, where the legal

framework is not fully in place, and ideally also bring in a domestic and regional market insight, the

latter being a key to early success.


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Myanmar is unique compared to other countries in the region, as local investors express themselves

ready to invest in marine aquaculture, if they are convinced that technology can be made available

in Myanmar and that it is economic feasible. The potential investors are companies from seafood

processing, companies having fishing fleets or companies already involved in some aquaculture related activity.

The study recommends to link up with commercial partners from Myanmar. They seem competent

investors, and those identified have a devotion for aquaculture, as they have a strong belief that

marine aquaculture has to be developed in Myanmar, because of the depleted marine fish resources.

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According to the Tor, the mission was to visit two regions, Tanintharyi and Rakhine to appraise their

potential for investments in marine aquaculture. Although the two regions may seem similar, when looking at Google Earth, the similarity in potential is different.

Rakhine state, bordering to Bangladesh, has been isolated inside Myanmar for the last 50 years. It is the second poorest state in Myanmar.

However it is not recommended to the foreign investor, in especially large-volume marine fish

farming, due to the following reasons: 1) there is a high risk of cyclones making landfall in Rakhine,

historically every second year, 2) only few islands offer any protection against strong monsoon wind

impact, 3) the water depths nearby these islands are too shallow, and there is strong turbidity, 4)

Rakhine is still fairly isolated with poor market access and 5) there is currently a risk of religious

unrest.

As a foreign investor interested in Myanmar, it does not make sense to take the above risks, when there is another region with optimal conditions.

Tanintharyi region is bordering Thailand and has an archipelago of more than 800 medium and larger islands. It is a fast developing region.

It is highly recommended to the foreign investor in large-volume marine fish farming due to the

following reasons: 1) there are no history of cyclones making landfall in Tanintharyi, 2) monsoon

impact is less i.e. less wind and rainfall, 3) the archipelago holds a very large number of potential

large-volume cage sites, protected and with suitable depths, 4) most of the sites are more than 20

km from the mainland, and turbidity will be minimal, 5) good market access being close to Yangon

and Thailand, processing plants, port facility and local airports and 6) no ethnic unrest or security threat.

2 BACKGROUND AND SCOPE OF STUDY

Myanmar holds one of SE Asia’s largest untapped area resources of potential for developing marine

aquaculture. Stretching over most of the Myanmar coastline, large tidal flats have the potential for

large volume bivalve farming, and in especially the Tanintharyi Region bordering Thailand, a large

archipelago offers ample opportunities of protected sites with sufficient depths for developing large-volume marine fish cage farming.

Presently hardly any marine aquaculture takes place. The traditional SE Asian small-scale marine fish

farms are absent. But in development context this is a competitive edge of Myanmar, as it opens for


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developing a large-volume marine fish farming sector based on modern, sustainable practises

without being exposed to the disease threats from nearby small-scale farmers, who do not apply any

biosecurity measurements. In other SE Asian countries the governments are striving to make

changes to the resource inefficient, traditional farming practises, while at the same time they have

to protect the livelihoods of the small-scale farmers. If Myanmar appreciates this competitive edge,

and introduces conducive regulations based on e.g. FAO’s guidelines for ‘good aquaculture

practises’, the marine aquaculture sector of Myanmar will have a strong future and have the potential to become a major supplier to the seafood basket of Asia.

Tropical S and SE Asia has about 2.5 billion people, and the production of farmed marine fish in

cages was only about 150,000 tons in 2014 (FAO FishStatJ 2016). Although this likely is

underreported, it should be compared to the nine-fold production of 1,330,000 tons of fish in sea cages by Norway inhabited by less than 5 million people!

One reason for the low marine fish production volume in S and SE Asia is that till now only very few

large-volume marine fish farms have been established. The production advantage of large-volume

farming is that through “efficiency of scale”, it is possible to produce medium valued fish of

importance to domestic, regional and global food security, at a production cost low enough for the

fish to enter value adding, such as fresh on ice or through further processing and thus being able to

reach larger markets.

However most of the large-volume marine fish farms that have started in SE Asia, have struggled

with marketing, as there are no apparent large-volume, tropical farmed fish species in the global

market. Thus the tropical farming strategy must be better adapted to regional market demand, and

possibly by using a multi-species production approach. In this way tropical marine fish farming

differs substantially from the farming of salmonids in the temperate climates. In salmon farming

production is more an issue of development of production volume based on the technical capacity of

the farm (equipment and sites), as a large global market demand has been established through

strong generic marketing of salmon. This generic marketing of tropical, marine farmed fish is absent,

and the lack of global markets needs to be appreciated by e.g. foreign investors, which thus have to

make a market based approach in their development of production volume with a focus on existing or emerging regional markets.

While Myanmar, like other Asian-SE Asian countries, has developed a strong freshwater fish farming

subsector, the Myanmar version differs substantially by the fact that it, to a large degree, is

characterised by large-volume, cash crop oriented farms different to the livelihood, food security

oriented and traditional, small-scale, freshwater fish farms of most other countries in the region.

Even the farming approach in Myanmar is rather extensive, this large-volume farming inevitably

means much higher operational input simply due to scale of operation, and thus the production in

the sector is already characterised by investors and not only by livelihood farmers. However this

large-volume production is achieved by occupying very large areas and not through ‘efficiency of

scale’.

Norway has the policy that aid as such, is not the engine for development, while focus should be

given sustainable development of livelihoods through private sector development, supported by the development of the adequate institutional framework (legislation and research).

The scope of this specific study is to assist private sector development by identifying the investment

opportunities in especially large-volume marine aquaculture and the up and down stream support

sectors. It is the ultimate ambition to attract ‘competent’ investors from Norway, who has both the


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financial means and the science based knowledge, which can be transferred to Myanmar to improve elements within the aquaculture value chain.

If Myanmar acquires this science based knowledge in related marine aquaculture fields such as

nutrition; animal health; biosecurity; breeding; technical and operational farm management;

environmental management and finally animal welfare, food safety and logistics from harvesting, it

could lead into developing efficient value chains bringing further value adding. Myanmar could

eventually also apply this value chain knowledge in freshwater aquaculture to modernize and increase value generation in this important sector.

Attracting investments is a precondition to achieve long term sustainable development of the

country in general and in aquaculture in specific. The latter has now also been acknowledged by FAO

(APFC 2016) as being a major constraint for development of aquaculture in the whole Asia-Pacific region.

According to the Terms of Reference (ToR) focus of the study was to be given the Rakhine State in the west and the Tanintharyi region in the east of Myanmar.

The assignment was commissioned by Norad’s Section for Private Sector Development.

3 APPROACH TO THE ASSIGNMENT

This study is based on interviews with informants, from fieldtrips as well as from literature sources.

The primary data collected during the field visits to the two regions, is supplemented by studies of naval charts supported by aerial photos from Goggle Earth.

As agreed with the client, the main focus was given marine fish farming related issues including up

and downstream. Some analyses of the value chains of the large, farmed freshwater fish production

as well as of some high value productions such as softshell crab were entered with the purpose to

understand the Myanmar “solutions” to their technical; biological; operational; financing and market

opportunities and challenges.

During the two-week mission in Myanmar it was only possible to make a snapshot of some area

resources in the two potential regions due to logistic constraints. The available, underutilised

resources are so vast that this study is not intended to be a site evaluation, but merely it can be used

to indicate some examples of the potential.

During the scheduling of the meetings with informants, it was prioritized to have the information

and opinions of the key or representative commercial actors in the value chain segments of the sector in the two geographical project areas, as well as in Yangon.

There is only one corporate owned marine fish cage farm in Myanmar. In addition to the sea site the

mission also visited the hatchery, brackish water cage sites and processing plant all situated in the Myeik region, and the head quarter of the same company in Yangon.

Local government and Department of Fisheries (DoF) officers, as well as leading members of

Myanmar Fisheries Federation both centrally and locally, were also interviewed. Even large volume

marine fish farming in modern cages is not developed, most interviewed had some awareness of the

technology, as Myanmar imported and tested 4 x 40m circumference High Density Poly-Ethylene

(HDPE) cages from China in 2004. The meetings with the local government officers in both regions


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unveiled a nearly unconditional support, acceptance and readiness for developing marine aquaculture.

Relevant staff of some universities were visited, as large-volume marine fish farming to a large

extent relies on competence including within research and development and availability of human

resources among the students. However it revealed very poor competence level within marine

aquaculture, as they did not have any lab or training facilities to offer the students. In Asia the crucial

need, to have a skilled workforce at all levels in a large-volume fish farm, is not appreciated.

The mission included meetings with NGO’s to learn, if there were any projects of relevance to the development of the marine fish farming sector, but there were in fact none.

The information gathered during the meetings showed major legislative or regulatory issues.

However they were clarified during the second last day, when interviewing the former Deputy

Director of DoF, as well during the report writing from news from the internet, as the governance situation in Myanmar is improved every week.

Some of the detailing requested in the ToR e.g. relating to freshwater aquaculture is not available,

and the statistics are neither comprehensive nor reliable to be used in any business analyses. To get

this type of information one would need to make a dedicated research in selected regions to collect

the real production figures at the different levels s.a. hatchery, nursery and grow-out.

4 PROFILE OF THE MYANMAR AQUACULTURE SECTOR

The validity of the available fisheries statistics from DoF is questioned by many. It is argued that they

are grossly over reported. However there may also be elements of underreporting, such as many

fishing vessels are unloading in Thai ports (or do not unload, when DoF officers are nearby), or

processed goods are simply smuggled over the borders. Likewise the pond area reported has also

been questioned as underreported. Thus below figures from the official statistics should only be considered indicative.

4.1 PRODUCTION OVERVIEW The annual reporting period used in Myanmar is their fiscal year, which is from start of April to the

end of March next year. This means that year 2014 in the FAO FishStatJ (2016) actually represents

the April 2013 to March 2014 fiscal year in the DoF statistics. In the DoF statistics only total aggregated figures were informed, hence below table is from FAO’s FishStatJ.

Table 1: Aquaculture production in Myanmar by species (tons)

Species 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Roho labeo 546,309 530,758 576,971 610,400 586,241

Catla 46,826 45,493 49,454 52,320 63,133

Tilapias nei 40,583 40,185 43,684 46,238 47,699

Giant tiger prawn 46,105 51,20,7 52,693 52,000 40,000

Silver barb 15,609 22,746 24,727 26,160 36,076

Mrigal carp 31,218 30,329 32,969 34,880 36,076

Pirapatinga 7,804 7,582 8,242 8,740 31,566

Common carp 23,413 22,747 24,727 26,160 27,057


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Pangas catfishes nei 17,170 15,922 17,308 18,290 18,838

Grass carp(=White amur) 15,609 15,164 16,484 17,440 18,038

Aquatic invertebrates nei 27,349 1,438 1,731 3,005 15,605

Bighead carp 10,926 10,615 11,539 11,336 11,725

Silver carp 9,365 9,099 9,890 10,464 10,823

Torpedo-shaped catfishes nei 7,804 7582 8,242 8,700 9,019

Freshwater fishes nei 7,215

Elkhorn sea moss 2,094 2,336 3,200 1,600 2,100

Orange mud crab 1,350 1,350 1,733 1,750 2,000

Giant river prawn 2,881 4,233 4,355 872 800

Groupers nei 145 140 140 140 150

Asian seabass 80 80 80 85 95

Others 150 150 200 200 0

Totals 852,791 819,156 888,369 930,780 964,255 Source: FAO’s FishStatJ 2016

The aquaculture production of nearly 1 million tons seems substantial, but it only represents about

20% of the country’s total aquatic production of 5,047,000 tons (i.e. including capture fisheries).

Compared to Vietnam, aquaculture contributed 54% of the total aquatic production of 5,732,900 tons in 2012.

In 2014 at least 93.6% (902,706 tons) of aquaculture production volume originated from freshwater

farming, of which 60.8% was Rohu (‘carp’ like fish) and 32.7% other freshwater fish and less than 0.1% macrobrachium/giant freshwater prawn.

The last 6.4% (61,700 tons) of the aquaculture production originated from farming in brackish and

marine waters and were mainly shrimp, “other aquatic invertebrates’, seaweed, hard and softshell

mud crab and some fish. The majority of fish from brackish water ponds were 1,600 tons of tilapia

and a pangasius type, while real marine fish only contributed 0.025% (245 tons) , which indicates, how underutilised the potential marine aquaculture area resources of Myanmar are.

4.2 OVERVIEW OF PRESENT FARMING PRACTICES

4.2.1 Freshwater fish

More than 20 fish species are farmed in freshwater, in addition to the freshwater prawn,

Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Trials were also performed in farming the South American whiteleg

shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) and the Asia seabass (Lates calcarifer) in pure freshwater.

Table 2: Aquaculture pond areas (acres) of states and regions of Myanmar in fiscal year 2014-15

State/Region Fish pond Shrimp pond Total

Kachin 2,310 2,310

Kayah 760 760

Kayin 582 80 662

Chin 296 296

Sagaing 6,374 6,374

Tanintharyi 1,065 4,140 5,204

Bago 27,1158 40 27,198


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Magway 425 425

Mandalay 7,609 7,609

Mon 979 1,125 2,104

Rakhine 20 155,533 155,553

Yangon 59,854 10,229 70,083

Shan 3,408 3,408

Ayeyarwady 115,462 57,892 173,354

Nay Pyi Taw 171 171

Total 226,474 229,039 455,513

DoF 2015 statistics

DoF statistics 2015 show that about half the area is freshwater fish ponds, while the other half is

shrimp ponds (Table 2). Ben Belton et.al. used a google tool and saw that some areas had 20- 50%

more pond area than the official statistics. In Ayeyarwady and Yangon, which are the two regions

with the most fish ponds, they counted some 210,000 ponds, each of 3-20 acres. This means that

alone in those two areas, there should be at least 600,000 acres of ponds, three to four times higher

than in the statistics. One reason for this mismatch is that many ponds may have been made without

permission, as the present (and soon replaced) aquaculture law only permitted conversion of ‘unproductive’ land into aquaculture ponds.

While the ‘village pond farms’ are 3-50 acres/each

(1.2 – 20 ha), the commercial farms range from 200-

500 acres (80-200 ha), while a handful of companies

have even larger farms. Likely one of the largest

companies (Htoo Thit) was informed to have 20,000

acres/8,000 ha ponds. The ponds of the larger farms

are 20 to 80 ha each and 1.2-1.5 m deep. The very

large-scale freshwater farms, owned by a handful of

companies, are said to occupy about 50% of the

farming area, and likely they are even in control of

much larger farming area via buy back arrangements (see later).

The production method is classified as semi-extensive or semi-intensive. I.e. both juveniles and feed

are input factors. Most farmers do polyculture, stocking up to 9+ different species with different

feeding behaviour (ecological niches) in the same pond. Depending on the availability of juveniles,

this may include Rohu (Labeo rohita), grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), common carp (Cyprinus

carpio), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus), catla (Catla catla),

silver barb (Barbodes gonionotus), pacu (Piaractus mesopotamicus), tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

and striped pangasius (Pangasius sutchi). Rohu would be the most common species amounting to

between 50-80% of the stocked fish. If seed is available, freshwater prawn may also be stocked in the same ponds.

Although feed is added, the fish also forage on the biological production of the pond ecosystem. If

using commercial floating pellet feed, the FCR is reported at a low 1.4, which documents that the

natural food produced in the pond plays a substantial role. Pellet feed is low in supply and

Figure 1: The ponds of Arsha Thar Co are very large, and a telescope is used from the observation tower


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expensive, and many farmers mix their own feed from different by-products such as peanut oilcake, rice bran etc.

Depending on the size, the juveniles are stocked at 1,000-1,500pcs or 2,500 pcs/acre. There is a

trend to stock larger juveniles to reduce the grow-out period to 1 year or less. Otherwise Rohu

grows to 1-3 kg in 1.5-2 years, which means a slow capital rotation for a tropical aquaculture

production. The large-scale farms have an average yield of 4.5 tons/ha, although the better farmers

are claimed to produce 12.5-16.0 tons/ha. Often there is a “seasonal harvesting”, i.e. the farmers

harvest at the same time. Unless the fish is produced on contract, it is sold to brokers or traders, who will transport them to the main wet markets of Yangon.

The implication of the large pond size and polyculture on disease prevention will be discussed in

chapter 4.3.2.

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A couple of the larger freshwater fish farm owners or farms were visited to understand the setup of the most professional companies, their scale and involvement in the value chain, and thus also to appreciate the capacity (including financial) of the local investors.

Htoo Thit, one of Myanmar’s largest farming groups, informed that they achieve in average 7

tons/acre or 17.5 tons/ha and that they have 8,000 ha ponds, which potentially would yield 140,000 tons of fish.

Htoo Thit Co., Ltd is an example of an almost

completely, vertically integrated aquafarming

group. It is often referred to as Htoo Thit Feed

Company, but in fact this family-owned group is

involved in all elements along the value chain:

hatchery, nursery, feed mill, feed distribution

centres, grow-out, transport (boats and trucks),

buying stations at Shwe Paduk and Baho San Pya

wet fish markets, cold storage, ice plants,

distribution, processing and export. They were among the first to start in aquaculture.

Presently they explained that they produce 800 tons of feed a day, basically to be used in their own

farm operations. However they also finance smaller farmers by supplying them feed and cash loans

for purchase of juveniles against entering buy back contracts on the final fish production. Apart from

being committed to sell the fish to Htoo Thit, the contracted farms have to provide some collateral

and commit only to use the Htoo Thit feed, while they are free to purchase the juveniles from any

source.

According to Ben Belton et.al. the expenditure on feed accounts for 75-80% of operating costs, and

feed costs may be USD 2,000-2,500 per acre/year, with especially labour and fish juveniles accounting for the remaining 20-25%.

Figure 2: Shwe Paduk fish market


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If using the above cost figure, the feed costs of operating the 20,000 acres/ 8,000 ha of Htoo Thit

would be USD 40 million. If calculating the feed costs based on a possible production of 140,000 tons

of fish with a FCR of 1.4 (their own data), it would be 196,000 tons of feed or USD 123 million (using

their feed selling price). In addition to this, Htoo Thit finance the operational costs of many other farmers against buy back arrangements (as mentioned above).

The above figures are just estimates, but the internal wealth of such an operation has to be

appreciated, which also may be the reason, why they clearly expressed no interest at all in entering any joint venture (JV), when asked.

Htoo Thit and other farmers are in search of diversifying away from Rohu into fish of a little higher

value. Thus pangasius, snakehead and sometimes tilapia are farmed in monocultures in smaller

ponds. Htoo Thit has 500 acres/200ha of ponds dedicated only for snakehead.

Demand for tilapia is considered strong, and the farm gate price is USD 1.10/kg. Production cost is

informed to be about USD 0.8/kg (of which feed is USD 0.55). One commercial hatchery selling

mono-sex/all-male juveniles stopped production, as it was damaged by the Nargis cyclone, and thus

the juveniles now are ‘in-pond’ produced by feral tilapia, meaning that it is a gender mix of faster

growing males and slow growing, reproducing females. This will eventually end up with a too high

stocking density thus further slowing growth. It was said that the genetic strain used in Myanmar, is

performing less than earlier, and Myanmar is in need to introduce some of the selected strains with

better growth performance. Two hatcheries producing mono-sex or all male tilapia are under construction.

Htoo Thit has presently no ambition to enter marine fish farming, but they could consider entering farming of Asian seabass in freshwater ponds, if domestic demand picks up.

The feed activities of Htoo Thit are detailed in chapter 4.3.2 below

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One freshwater farm Arsha Thar Co., Ltd (Figure 1) in Samaluk, Irrawaddy region about 2 hours’ drive

from Yangon was visited. They were established in 1996 and have ponds at two locations, i.e. 200 ha

and 80 ha (1,200 ha was also mentioned). They have good quality, all-year water supply from a nearby irrigation dam.

They have an integrated setup from nursery ponds for fish larvae and fry, and grow out, and if they

can purchase the fish larvae of all species, they do polyculture of more than 8 species: Rohu 90%, catla, barb, common carp, grass carp, silver carp, mrigal carp, pacu, striped catfish and tilapia.

In addition they grow freshwater prawn having their own post-larvae (PL) hatchery supply (see further in chapter 4.2.2)

They produce both ‘conventional’ fish and value added ‘organic’ fish.

The organic farming is performed with assistance from Infofish. The ‘mature’ fish fry is stocked at

25,000 pcs/acre for nursing, and for grow out the stocking density is reduced to 1,000-1,500 pcs/acre. All organic farming takes place in 2.5-3 acre ponds.

The conventional farming takes place in ponds of 5-60 acres in the following steps:

1) Nursery of fish larvae for 20-30 days, stocking density 3 million pcs/acre, average size of fish

larvae: 0.008 g or ¾”-1”


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2) Nursery of fish fry for 2-3 months, stocking density 100,000 pcs/acre, average size of fish fry:

5-10 g or 2”-2½”

3) Pre-grow-out of fish for 2-3 months, stocking density 25,000 pcs/acre, average size of fish:

50 g or 4”-6”

4) Grow-out of fish for 2-3 months, stocking density 3,000-3,500 pcs/acre, average size of fish:

400 g or 9”-10”

5) Final grow-out of fish for 8-12 months, stocking density 3,000-3,500 pcs/acre, average size of fish at harvest: 2-4 kg

The farm does not have fixed sales contracts, and the fish are sold on the open market, in addition to

a daily sales of 160 kg live fish for restaurants and hotels in Yangon, and direct sales to local buyers or cold stores.

They are producing about 800 tons of fish a year, but presently they are losing money from fish farming and try to identify alternative species, but till now not successfully.

Last year they made a trial with exotic, South American whiteleg shrimp in freshwater, both in monoculture and polyculture with freshwater prawn, but the survival was a low 20%.

They also tried Asian seabass/barramundi in freshwater, which was successful. Initial stocking size

was 50 g and after 4.5 months they achieved harvestable size of 600-800 g. They purchased the

juveniles, air lifted from the hatchery of KMK in Myeik (see later), and like KMK they also used

imported floating pellet feed from Thai Union. They had no disease problems, which is similar to the

experience in Australia, when growing Asian seabass in freshwater. The trial production was sold

both to processing plants and domestic market at a farm gate price of MMK 8,000 /viss (USD 4.2/kg). Price in Thailand was informed to be USD 3.7/kg.

They claimed that freshwater fish prices are stable, but feed prices are increasing. They are one of

the few ‘independent’ customers of Htoo Thit feed mill, but the feed increased 50% in one year i.e. from MMK 650 to 950/viss i.e. up USD 0.60/kg. They have one month credit.

Overall they feel that since the farmed carp-like species only have a domestic market, it is

increasingly difficult to make a profit, and this is why, they focus on expanding freshwater prawn

farming and fish species like tilapia and Asian seabass, which could be exported.

But they are constrained, especially by lack of quality stocking material. In addition the Arsha Thar farm manager explained the general constraints as: market, production efficiency and investment.

4.2.2 Giant freshwater prawn

This species could be one of the success stories in Myanmar, since it has a wold market, and

Myanmar has the suitable environment with unrestricted area resources (ponds). The farming of

freshwater prawn is constrained by a very territorial behaviour, especially by the larger ‘blue claw’

males, which makes its suitable for extensive farming. But presently the prawn pond farmers do not

really generate a consistent profit. During the last 4 years, there has been a lack of quantity and

quality of stocking material from the hatcheries of Myanmar. The reasons have not been identified,

but the survival rate of the PL’s of all hatcheries has been very low. Since genetic degradation of

broodstock was suspected, new stock was imported from China, however they became sexually

mature at a very small size. This could make one suspect it to be the other species, Macrobrachium

nipponense, which is very popular in China. However they only grows to the size of a whiteleg shrimp. Another theory is that the biosecurity in the old hatchery approach is causing the problems.


15

If this production constraint is solved, it will likely have a big impact on the profitability of the

freshwater pond farming, because the global market is there. Above mentioned Arsha Thar farm

sells freshwater prawn at MMK 18,000/viss (USD 9.5/kg) at 20-40 g/pc or 25-50 pcs/kg.

Arsha Thar informed that they used the following farming strategy for monoculture of freshwater prawn:

1) Intensive nursery of PL’s for 2-3 months, pond size 1 ha, stocking density 25 pcs/m2, survival

60%, average size of prawn: 3 g, yield 450kg/ha, pellet feed, fed 5 times a day, FCR 1.2

2) Semi-intensive nursery of juveniles for 2-3 months, pond size 1.2-2 ha, stocking density 7.5

pcs/m2, survival 70%, average size of prawn: 15 g, yield 780kg/ha, pellet feed, fed 4 times a

day, FCR 1.2

3) Extensive grow-out of prawns for 3-5 months, pond size 1-8 ha, stocking density 2.5 pcs/m2,

survival 60%, average size of prawn: 60 g, yield 800kg/ha, farm made feed, fed 3 times a day, FCR 1.5

4.2.3 Softshell crab

Three softshell crab farms were visited in the three regions visited ( i.e. incl. Yangon). They are large

investment farms with a high labour input, and thus can bring general information about the

capacity of local investors of relevance to other potential aquaculture activities.

In most other tropical countries, farming of mud crab means producing the hard-shell crab, but this

was informed not to be feasible in Myanmar, as large crabs still were plentiful from fisheries.

Farming of hard-shell crab was however mentioned to take place in happas in Irrawaddy, but this is

livelihood/small scale. The statistics mentions that about 16,500 tons of live hard-shell mud crabs

from fisheries were exported in 2014-15 valued at USD 49 million (USD 3/kg). In the same period

2,835 tons of softshell mud crab were exported at USD 14.7 million (USD 5.2/kg). The latter

calculated kg-price is low compared to information from the farms and must be the ‘official’ price given at export.

Softshell mud crab production:

Small hard-shell crabs (60-120 g) are collected in

traps by fishermen and delivered at the collecting

pier of the farm at USD 2.5/kg or MMK 6,000-

6,500/viss (or USD 3.4/kg). Later the softshell crab

is sold at up to USD 15/kg (or now down at USD 8-

10).

Figure 3: Small hard-shell crabs to be stocked in the farm


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The crabs are stocked in individual, small plastic containers, which are placed in 30+m long, floating

plastic pipe racks in a brackish water pond. Each pond may have hundreds of racks and 1 or 2

crossing, inspection bridges under which, the long racks are pulled. Each rack may have 6+ crab

containers side by side, and each container (i.e. each crab) is inspected every hour or two, 24 hours a day. Containers with moulted crabs are removed and brought to the processing place.

Figure 4: Softshell crab farm with inspection bridge and floating racks with the crab containers

The processing is simple - firstly the live, newly moulted crab is put 1 hour in freshwater, after which

they may be put in ozone treated water (and possibly water with phosphate - like shrimp). Then they

are graded into size groups such as 70-100 g; 100-120 g and 120-150 g, before they are Individual Quick Frozen (IQF), glazed and individually wrapped in plastic sheets and put in a cardboard box.

This is “whole round” crab, which is accepted globally,

except in the USA. USA market wants the “whole,

cleaned” crab, which has the tail removed, and the top

(carapace) lifted to remove the gills. Only some farms

produces whole cleaned crab. Apart from a smaller

domestic market, soft shell crabs have a truly global

market: China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, EU,

Australia (preference for the larger sizes) and USA (whole cleaned crab).

Figure 5: The frozen softshell crabs are individually wrapped


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After being delivered by the fishermen the crabs

are kept up to 40-60 days, until they moult. They

are fed every day or two with cuts of human food

grade fish, like fresh sardines (MMK 8,500/20 kg or

USD 0.43/kg), ribbonfish (MMK 700-800/viss or

USD 0.42/kg) or offal from processing such as the

head of a pelagic (USD 0.5/kg). Mortality is 7-10% or up to 20% during rainy SW monsoon season.

The staff:

The large companies all have about 500 workers with a gender split like 150 men and 350 women.

A common remark by all companies is that the staff are shifting fast, but also it should be

appreciated that most are paid only the official minimum salary. One company in Myeik area used

male workers from Irrawaddy, while the female workers were locals. Another Myeik farm used only

local workers. Often staff stay only 4-6 months and then go for better paid jobs as illegal immigrants

in Thailand or Malaysia. One company gave a bonus, if staff stayed more than one year; the same

company paid the same salary for male or female workers such as MMK 108.000 (USD 91)/month

plus food, accommodation and coffee, while another company with a woman director paid a little

more to the male workers, since they had the hardest physical work. She mentioned that the

additional costs of food and accommodation is estimated at MMK 40-50,000/person/month, thus giving an indirect salary cost level of USD 135/month.

The staff are working 6 days a week, in 8 hour day or night shifts, like from 7 to 11 and 13 to 17 or 19 to 23 and 1 to 5.

The investment:

It is difficult to assess the size of investment in a softshell farm, but the larger farms have some 1.5+

million crab containers. Alone the investment in the individual crab containers, which are locally produced at USD 1/pcs, is substantial.

The investors:

Aung Moe Khaing Co. Ltd, Kyauk Tan Township, 2 hours from Yangon. The owner is originally from

Myeik region. His main business is having a fishing fleet, of which he still holds 20 vessel, which are

unloading in Yangon. Secondly he has a construction company. He started the farm in 2008, when he

took over an obsolete shrimp farm (due to whitespot disease). Now he has 1.3 million crab boxes

producing 50-60 tons of softshell/month, crab processing plant, freshwater prawn hatchery and 10

whiteleg shrimp ponds. He has 500 staff and plans to build a school for the children of the staff. Using the figures informed by him, the monthly turnover is between USD 400,000 to 600,000.

His land will soon become part of a large harbour development, and he has purchased 200 acres in Irrawaddy, as he want to expand, but this depends on the development in the softshell market.

Figure 6: Softshell crab production is very labour demanding - here preparing the human food grade fish for the crabs


18

He does not have any constraints, but he appreciates that the ‘wild seed’ of crab may become an

issue in the future. Likewise the market is a challenge, and he is always looking into alternative

businesses. One of which could be marine fish cage farming in the Myeik region, which he has great

expectation to, but he likes to see it documented successful, as he does not have any experience

with it. Secondly he is considering farming of Asian seabass in brackish water ponds at the Irrawaddy

site.

He could consider entering a JV in marine fish farming, if he finds someone, who knows the business,

and mutual trust can be developed. But in his own words, he appreciates that it could be difficult for

a foreigner to enter a JV, because it may seem too risky, as most issues are without documents and

based only on trust. Foreigners want answers and documents, and thus he concludes that he cannot imagine that foreigners want to make JV.

Therefore if he needs technology transfer, he would first look around and learn and then hire in someone from abroad. It is common to hire in a foreigner for 1-2 years to transfer competence.

He now has a yearly audit of his activities, but this is not a demand by government, but something

which increases his own overview. He only recently, with the help of his daughter, who has a

business degree, split his activities up in departments like administration; accounting; production; cold store etc. etc., which also provides him a better overview.

Pyay Phoe Tun Co., Ltd, Myeik. We did not meet the owner of PPT Company, U Hla Than himself,

but he is among the richest in Myeik region and involved in all kinds of business. They have 15 deep

sea fishing vessels, fish meal factory (no oil separation), shrimp farming in JV with Thai CP,

processing and cold store (1,000 tons) and endless other activities. About 20 years ago they

operated a grouper farms based on wild caught juveniles. They were given the ‘right of use’ of 4

circular 40m HDPE cages imported by DoF from China in 2004. These larger cages were also used for

farming groupers. The site, which had been used, was visited by the mission. The depth was

measured to 5 m at low tide. They reportedly experienced ‘large mortalities’, which was claimed to

be because of turbid water in connection with a storm. Anyhow that site should never have been

used for 40m cages, and the large net volume also is not suitable for farming groupers. The 4 cages

were seen in a reservoir pond at the softshell crab farm and still intact. The owner has informed that

he still is interested in entering marine fish farming, but with a partner.

They have been involved in softshell crab farming for the last 10 years. They also have about 500

staff, stock maximum 1.2 million hard shell crabs and produce about 50 tons/month of softshell

crabs. The softshell manager said that food fish (sardines) are getting scarce, though crabs still are

abundant. However development of a hatchery and crab feed would improve the sustainability of the business.

After the Nargis typhoon the company provided canoes and traps to 30 families/70 people from the

Irrawaddy delta and moved them to Myeik as a corporate social responsibility project. These people

already provided crab seedlings from Irrawaddy to the company.

Kaung Kaung Co., Ltd.

This company started softshell crab farming in 2004 and has also 1.5 million crab boxes producing up

to 50-60 tons of frozen “whole round” softshell crabs/month. Now for unexplained reasons the

production was down at 30 tons/month. From establishing the farm till now they had stable supply of wild crab seed, and there had been no issues with diseases, mortality or market?


19

The Kaung Kaung Company has like the other crab farms 20 fishing vessels and has no problems in

getting ‘low value’ fish for the crabs. This company use very large ponds, and therefore the 33 ponds

(600 acres) have 53 bridges i.e. many of the ponds have two inspection bridges.

The processing facility was just across the river, but it was no logistic issue. The processing facility was in the process of getting an EU certification.

It was mentioned that 10% of the production costs were salaries, 30% came from crab purchase and 10% from feed.

4.2.4 Spiny lobster

Spiny lobsters are caught in driftnets 4-10 days after spring tide. There is presently no spiny lobster

farming, however the logistics involved in trading of the live lobsters could easily, include farmed

lobster, when the natural resources for large lobster are getting exhausted. Vietnam is producing

about 2,000 tons of spiny lobster in aquaculture mainly targeting the Chinese market, which also is

the main market of Myanmar.

There are 3 species traded in Myeik: Green (Panulirus polyphagus), bamboo (P. versicolor) and

seven-colour (P. ornatus) lobsters. Bamboo lobster lives in muddy water, and the translated local name is mud lobster. Seven-colour lobster is often called tiger or ornate lobster in other countries.

2 lobster trading facilities in Myeik were

visited. The lobster traders also trade

other live seafood, especially mantis

prawn, but also groupers and marine

snails. The main trader interviewed also

had two collecting stations in Irrawaddy

and Rakhine. In Rakhine they have up to

7 species of lobster available. While

some larger lobsters (>500 g) are shipped

directly from Myeik to Thailand, most of

the live seafood were shipped by air to

Yangon to Chinese owned, holding

facilities established close to the airport.

From there the seafood was distributed

to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The trader estimated that up to 40 tons of bamboo lobsters are available per month in Yangon market and 2 tons of 7-colour lobster.

The different countries have different species and size preferences:

China prefers smaller sizes <400 g.

Shanghai prefers 100g-300 g Bamboo lobster

Guangdong prefers Green lobster

Taiwan requires 100-200 g

Singapore requires 300-500 g

The above examples are from Myanmar. From Vietnam the Chinese market looks different.

Figure 7: Bamboo lobster in the holding tank of a lobster trader in Myeik


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Price examples:

Ornate, tiger or 7-colour lobster

>500 g: MMK 50,000/kg

>1 kg: MMK 60,000/kg (USD 50/kg)

Price range: MMK 40,000 to 85,000/kg

Bamboo lobster:

>500 g: MMK 30,000/kg

Price range: MMK 24,000 to 50,000/kg

Green lobster

>500g: MMK 25,000/kg (USD 21/kg)

Myanmar is a little unique, as it also has developed a strong trade with China in live mantis shrimp

from capture fisheries. The price is higher than the price of most lobster species apart from the 7-

colour lobster. The mantis shrimp is traded at about MMK 60,000/kg (USD 50/kg). Till now no farming of mantis shrimp has developed anywhere.

As for live groupers the trader kept groupers, caught by fishermen using the trader’s traps, at his

cage farm in Myeik. He was selling the fish alive to a well boat from Hong Kong, when it passed on its

scheduled collection tour every second month. He also sent live orange spotted or Malabar grouper

by air to Yangon or Mandalay at MMK 6,000-7,000/kg (USD 5-6/kg) or up to MMK 19-20,000/kg (USD 17/kg). Dead ones sold at MMK 2-4,000/kg.

The Myeik traders have to add 10% extra weight to compensate mortality, as well as they have to

carry the costs of transport. They do not trade directly with Singapore and Malaysia, and they avoid

trading with Taiwan.

According to a DoF regulation, lobster, mantis prawn and crab less than 100 g are not allowed to be

exported. Likewise during June to August lobster fishing is not permitted. October to January is the peak season, and the lobster prices are also the highest during these months.

4.2.5 Shrimp

Approximately half of the pond farming area of Myanmar 228,296 acres/92,400 ha was shrimp

ponds yielding 40,000 tons according to DoF statistics. 68% of the shrimp pond area were situated in

Rakhine State, which was visited. Most of these shrimp ponds were extensive “ponds” or dammed

lagoons in tidal flats, where natural shrimp larvae were trapped in the ponds at high tide and then

grown based only on the natural biological production inside the pond. This means EXTENSIVE

rearing in its purest fashion.

But it was informed that most of the ponds were not in use, since the white spot disease wiped out

the industry during 2003 – 2010. Those still in use would only be able to produce an average of 5-10

kg per “4 month” crop/acre or 25-70 kg/ha/year with 2 crops due to the monsoon season. Before

the white spot disease the extensive farms produced 30-50 kg/acre (200kg/ha). These low or high

figures do not match the average production of 432kg/ha that can be calculated based on the claims

of the DoF statistics. In fact the statistics has basically shown the same maximum production 40-


21

50,000 tons since 2005 with no reflection in the figures of the collapse of the industry due to white

spot disease. This is just one example of the need to be very cautious in using official figures for any

business planning purpose.

When visiting Rakhine and having meeting with the processing company members of the local MFF,

they feared the mission wanted to discuss about reviving the shrimp farming, because they had no

belief in it. They wanted to discuss new ideas, on how they could get raw material for their

processing (see discussion on possible conversion of the shrimp ponds in chapter 5.2).

Earlier shrimp farming was booming especially in Rakhine and Irrawaddy. But the interviewed people

informed that the shrimp production including the hatchery production started going bad already

some 15 years ago, and totally had collapsed 5 years ago due to white spot disease (and a cyclone).

It is only starting to pick up again in the central and east Myanmar based on imported PL’s,

introduction of the exotic whiteleg shrimp and using semi-intensive approach, i.e. use a medium

stocking density of hatchery produced PL’s, use of pellet feed, use of probiotics/pharmaceuticals,

use of paddlewheels, plastic liner and liming. If using Vietnamese production figures, the

productivity could become 1,000-2,000 kg/ha/year of tiger shrimp, or 1,000-4,000 kg/ha/year of

whiteleg shrimp, IF diseases were avoided.

Earlier there were 27 government shrimp hatcheries, but this was reduced into 3, of which only one

was in operation. Therefore now PL’s are imported from Bangladesh and Thailand, but this practise

is not safe because of the ‘new’ disease, early mortality syndrome (EMS), which causes high

mortality among the PL’s. Diagnostic (PCR) facilities are few, and thus not really available to all.

The booming shrimp farming in Rakhine was earlier very closely tied towards Bangladesh, as they

had the infrastructure such as cold stores and electricity, and importantly they had the market access during the trade ban. Rakhine shrimp was re-exported as being of Bangladeshi origin.

One government shrimp hatchery ‘Marine

Shrimp Farming Demonstration center’ was

visited 1 hour drive outside Sittwe. Originally it

was built and funded by Thailand, but owned

and operated by DoF, Rakhine State. It has 11

permanent staff. The centre used to produce

many tiger shrimp PL’s also for restocking, but

recently they were not successful. The main

problem was in their budget, as the necessary

budget was recorded in the government budget

as a personal loan taken by the hatchery

manager. If the hatchery manager could not

produce the budgeted number of PL’s, it would become a personal debt!

Currently, therefore DoF is working together with a private company, which finances the operation

of the hatchery, as there is a local demand, however the production costs cannot compete with cost of PL’s imported from Bangladesh.

4.2.6 Marine fish

Only Asian seabass and some groupers are farmed in Myanmar. The Asian seabass has a closed

production cycle i.e. it is hatchery based, while the grouper farming is the traditional SE Asian set up

Figure 8: Meeting at the DoF shrimp hatchery outside Sittwe. Head of hatchery at the end of the table.


22

with wild caught juveniles or larger fish from capture fisheries kept in cages for the Hong Kong well

boat to pick up.

There is only one company involved in marine fish farming in cages, and that is United KMK.

As many of the previous mentioned investors, he is

also a versatile investor. The major investment is

Mandalay Beer, a premium beer sold in Mandalay

and upscale restaurants. Then he imports diesel

fuel and has two seafood processing plants in

Myeik and Yangon. The first is mainly producing

block frozen squid, while the latter mainly

processes wild caught, white shrimp and has EU

approval. In aquaculture he has an Asian seabass

hatchery and grow-out cages at two brackish water

sites and one marine site in Myeik region. Earlier

KMK exported Asian seabass fillets from fisheries to

Australia, but overfishing made him consider to

start farming in 2004. He started buying wild

caught Asian seabass juveniles and feeding trash fish. In 2007 he started the hatchery with the help

of Australian expertise provided by one of his customers. For several years there were disease issues

in the production, and they had no profit, but in 2013 he changed into use of pellet feeds, and since

then it became profitable and expanding.

The vertical integrated farm consists of:

1) Hatchery/nursery

2) Brackish water ponds and cages 3) Marine cages

Ref 1) The hatchery is situated at

Yemyitkyi, near Kyaukpya, 15km Birdseye

NE of Myeik. To the outsider the

hatchery has a similar tank layout as a shrimp hatchery.

The feeding however is different than for

shrimp, starting with rotifer and artemia.

Then, depending on whether the

juveniles will be used in their own cage

operations, which uses pellet feeds, or

sold to small scale pond farmers, who

uses trash fish, the juveniles will either

be fed INVE inert feeds or minced

sardines. The ones fed INVE feeds are

kept inside in tanks to have better

control with the weaning process (75%

daily water exchange), while the juveniles for the pond farmers are moved to happas in ponds. The artemia and INVE feeds are imported via Thailand.

Figure 10: The KMK seabass hatchery at Myeik. It is to be upgraded as demand is increasing

Figure 9: Meeting with KMK. The owner, to the right, also owns Mandalay Brewery


23

The hatchery normally produces 4 batches a year,

and there is a high demand for juveniles, which

makes them consider also to make a batch during

the rainy season, when salinity may drop to 9 ppt.

One batch may produce 500,000 juveniles, of which

300,000 are sold to small scale farmers, while they

stock 200,000 themselves. The maximum size of a

batch was informed to be 1 million fingerlings (for

45 days).

Initially the trash fish fed fingerlings have a better

survival, but later those fed inert fed have the better.

The batch seen during the visit to the hatchery had a

high survival, but still they feel, they need to improve

survival. From egg to 13 day-fry the survival rate is 90-

95 %. But from 14 day-fry to 2 inch fingerlings, the

survival rate is 20% and that should be improved. They

earlier had a problem in the hatchery, which was

related to hygiene, as they did not decapsulate the

artemia before hatching, which is normal procedure in

most marine hatcheries.

The owner has purchased much of the surrounding land to the hatchery, as he has plans to expand

the hatchery and modernize the buildings/sheds. Demand for seabass certainly seems to be there

when talking with other informants. The owner estimates that the domestic seabass market in

Myanmar is larger than the Thai market.

Currently the hatchery is supplying seabass fingerlings mainly to the Myeik region and very little to

Yangon and Irrawaddy, as they request larger juveniles, and transportation costs are too high. The juveniles are sold at 3-4 inches at MMK 100/inch i.e. less than USD 0.1/inch.

The broodstock is kept in the marine cages only. KMK has collected 50 pieces of broodstock from

different places and use both pellets and sardines as feed.

Ref. 2-3) KMK has 3 sites for cages. One marine site next to the small Island of Sagyun in Myeik

archipelago. 20km Birdseye NW of Myeik, and 2 brackish water sites in the river near the hatchery at Yemyitkyi, near Kyaukpya, 15km Birdseye NE of Myeik.

All cages are the traditional 5 x 5 x 5 m wooden frame cages in clusters. At the marine site they have

some 50 cages, while at the brackish water sites, they have 60 and 25 cages respectively. They have

added more cages for the last 2 years and still are, especially at the brackish water sites, due to the better performance.

Figure 11: The tanks are used for rearing juveniles fed inert feeds to be used by KMK

Figure 12: The juveniles to be sold to small-scale farmers are fed minced fish in happas, as they will be fed trash fish at the small-scale farms.


24

All cages are used for Asian seabass, apart from

a trial at the marine site, where one cage is

stocked with about 100 larger shortfin pompano

(Trachinotus falcatus) purchased from Taiwan. In

July this year he considers importing some cobia

for trialling.

All grow-out fish are fed floating seabass pellet

feed imported from Thai Union. The FCR in

earthen ponds (1.2) is better than in the cages,

but this is normal with a factor 0.1 better. Also

the survival rate in brackish water cages and

ponds is better than in marine cages, and KMK

has not found the reason. Likewise the skin

colour of the seabass grown in the marine cages

is a little dark, while those farmed in brackish

water has white colour. The skin colour is important, as the market price for those of white colour is

higher2. The fish is sold at 500-750g at USD 4.3/kg. Most Myanmar people have a preference for freshwater ‘seafood’, but they have also accepted Asian seabass even for home cooking.

The water temperature at the marine site varies between 26-31 oC, which is very optimal. There is

no human impact in the area. However at the corners of the marine site the water depths at low tide

were measured to be 5 and 9.5 m, of which the 5 m is too shallow, when having 5 m deep nets.

Likewise there was a very strong current causing net deflection and reducing the net volume

substantially. The current has never been measured, but a simple equipment was suggested.

According to a naval chart the tidal current near the site is 2 knots (more than 1m/s), which is higher

than the comfort zone for most fish (0.25-0.5m/s).

2 The consultant has asked an Australian seabass expert, but he never heard of this difference. Searching on

the internet the dark colouration is only mentioned in connection with diseases one of which is Big Belly

Disease caused by a coco bacillus.

Figure 13: The cages used by KMK at the river and the marine sites, are the traditional wooden raft structure. Note that at this river site they are expanding with new cages.

Figure 14: The tidal current at the KMK marine cage site is likely much more than 1 knot and outside the comfort zone of the fish (and cages)


25

Previously it has been mentioned that DoF purchased 4 circular HDPE cages (40 m circumference)

from China, which now lay idle. KMK has the plan to borrow them and start trialling with one cage

with cobia, one with pompano and two with Asian sea bass.

Just outside the present cage area there is an area with 15m depth, which they consider for the trial.

The main issue to measure, before proceeding installation of the cages, is to make hourly current

measurements for at least a week or two around full moon, to make sure the current preferably is

around 1 knot.

According to the owner, the challenges operating a marine fish farm in Myanmar, is that there are

no R&D facilities like e.g. in Thailand, and thus the industry has to depend on themselves. He is

wisely developing his production step by step according to market development. When considering

cobia, he knows there is no immediate local market, but he has ideas of making a value added product, which could be used in a local ‘daily’ dish.

Others:

In Myeik region there are other potential investors said to consider entering marine fish farming –

investors that already are in aquaculture and/or capture fisheries activities. One of these larger investors is PPT (ref. chapter 4.2.3).

In Myeik region there are possibly 30 small-scale cage farmers, each with an average of 10 cages,

doing grouper farming or live grouper keeping.

Close to KMK’s marine site there is a DoF marine

fish hatchery, which was constructed in 2004.

Originally it was planned to produce groupers,

but that did not materialize successfully. Instead

they started producing Asian seabass based on

annual capture of wild broodstock. It is said to

produce fry for restocking (pls. refer to chapter

4.3.2), but like many government facilities it has budgetary problems.

Htoo Thit feed mill is producing floating seabass

feed for about 10 pond famers. The price was

informed to be MMK 1,400/viss, however in a

pricelist dated May 9th, 2016 the price is quoted

at MMK 2,310/viss i.e. either USD 0.74/kg or USD 1.22/kg. (Pls. refer to 4.3.2)

To compare Thai Union seabass feed cost between THB 870 to 1020/25kg i.e. between USD 0.99 -

1.22/kg. For the imported feed there is an additional 2% ‘income’ tax, 1.5% customs and transport

costs.

In addition to Asian seabass juveniles from KMK there is one person/company importing sea bass juveniles from Thailand since 2012.

4.2.7 Other marine organism

A Korean company has been ‘farming’ seaweeds in Myeik region since 2003. They made agreement

with a previous minister of fisheries and was permitted to have 100% ownership. Information is not

Figure 15: The DoF hatchery off Myeik was idle at the time of visit.


26

very detailed, but the business model is understood to be a buy back arrangement, where the

Korean company provides stocking material to farmers growing it in the sea. First they started with

eucheuma/kappaphycus, but the grazing by rabbitfish was told to be severe, and they changed into

growing gracilaria, which immediately does not make sense. In the FAO statistics a 2,100 tons

production of (dried) ‘Elkhorn sea moss’ (eucheuma) is mentioned, and if this is correctly reported, it

would mean that still they produce eucheuma.

In Myeik region there was a JV between Japanese and local companies producing pearl oysters,

however this is said to have been taken over by the local partner.

Presently there is no farming of bivalves for consumption, though it was informed that there was to

be made a MoU in late May, 2016 between Japanese Fisheries Institute and Myeik University

regarding development of green mussel farming.

There are substantial tidal flats in Myanmar holding large stocks of clams and blood cockles, and

areas where spat were told to be common. After the cyclone Nargis some of the larger clam beds in

Irrawaddy disappeared completely, but they should recover after some year?

4.3 VALUE CHAINS AND MARKET OBSERVATIONS For those, who seeks to understand the diversity of the value chains in Myanmar, an excellent and

the first in debt analysis of the value chains in the freshwater aquaculture sector in Myanmar, is

provided by Dr Ben Belton et. al. in “Aquaculture in Transition: Value Chain Transformation, Fish and

Food Security in Myanmar”. Ben Belton has been located in Myanmar for several years, and the analyses are based on extensive, detailed fieldwork by the team going behind the official figures.

Much of the present freshwater aquaculture is concentrated within a 50-100km radius around

Yangon, the main distribution hub or market. This has led to a very elaborate cluster structure of all the segments in the value chain. They are all analysed in the above reference (Figure 16).

Figure 16: Summary of interviews by value chain segment conducted by Belton et.al.

Of interest in the present context of marine aquaculture sector development, the larger freshwater

farming and feed companies are already fully vertically integrated and involved in the whole value

chain, and actually to a much larger degree than most European farming companies. This should be acknowledged and make Myanmar farming companies very qualified partners to foreign investors.


27

4.3.1 Midstream

Most of the detailed technical information in the midstream segment has already been given in

chapter 4.2, and the midstream segment will therefore not be further detailed.

Structure wise, based on a theory given in one article for nearly a decade ago, it has been a common

perception that Myanmar freshwater fish farming was unique to other countries in SE Asia, because

especially the farming of Rohu was targeting export. The conclusion was that this export orientation

was the reason, why Myanmar developed large-scale, corporate fish farms responsible for the

majority of production and not like in the rest of S Asia and SE Asia, where freshwater production

depends on small-scale farms. This perception and conclusion have been unrivalled till recently,

when information level has improved.

E.g. according to DoF statistics 2015 only 64,017 tons or about 11% of the Rohu production was

actually exported in the fiscal year 2014-15, and thus the vast majority of production is likely for the domestic consumption.

And over a period of 11 years the total exports from freshwater aquaculture never exceeded 14% of

total reported farm output. This confirms that the characterization of Myanmar’s freshwater

aquaculture as export-driven is overstated (Ben Belton et.al).

So what may be the reason for the unique business structure, where large companies dominate the

freshwater fish production? It could be because of the history with a military regime, where large

areas of “government land” were put on auction for aquaculture, thus indirectly encouraging the

large scale productions. Most small-scale ponds made in agricultural land were illegal until 1989,

when it as permitted to convert unproductive land to fish ponds, however still is was not sufficient

compared to the demand, and smaller farm units continued converting agricultural land into ponds,

but in a more cautious, limited scale.

4.3.2 Upstream

Extension and service providers

This does not take place in a formal setup, even it is mentioned as a service of DoF. Likely most of

the farmers use their ’informal network’ with other farmers, nurseries and hatcheries for technology

transfer or from the feed companies, if they purchase feed. Ben Belton et.al. mention that in one

region DoF staff provided informal veterinary consultancy services against a fee, and that farmers purchasing feed received farm visits by company technicians.

Thus the impression is that the NGO’s and foreign and local experts working on all the bilateral

donor projects are the most important extension service taking place at the moment. In this context

the services provided by the American Soy Bean Association in promoting use of pellet feeds in

general also should be mentioned, as they sometimes provide even foreign experts to trouble shoot

problems in the farming process.

Disease treatment and prevention In freshwater fish farming the disease problems mentioned are related to Streptococcus bacterial

infections and parasites, affecting all farmed species, and though commonly reported a problem by

the farmers, the seriousness is not documented. There is very limited availability of veterinary

services (public or private), and also it is reported that there are very few shops selling antibiotics

and other chemicals compared to other Asian countries


28

This smaller presence of shops selling pharmaceuticals is likely due to the fact that it is not technical

feasible to treat the fish due to the VERY large ponds. Furthermore it may not even be economical

feasible due to the low per kg value of the fish produced. Finally the way the juveniles are produced

and stocked in polyculture of 7-9 species, probably makes it more than challenging to develop and advice for any prophylactic treatment.

Only when monoculture becomes predominant, one can start looking into the feasibility of

developing vaccines, but this is only envisaged for snakehead, tilapia and pangasius. The feasibility of

farming the low value ‘carps’ is rooted in polyculture (and low stock ing densities) benefiting from the natural food web established in the ponds.

The most likely way forward to reduce impact of diseases in the polyculture farming would involve a

change in the whole production management. It could include separating the production segments

such as hatching, nursing and grow out, and avoid mixing generations in the same ponds. The pond soil management should likely also be improved such as liming and drying.

If it is possible to reform production management and have a more separated production, then

vaccination could be proven to be the way forward for the freshwater farming. Of course there will

still be large challenges, because of the polyculture and the likely different efficacy of vaccination of

the different fish species, and that could make a vaccine lack the economic efficiency in practice.

Thus for the companies interested in vaccine production, it is suggested to look into a number of

case stories in the snakehead, tilapia and pangasius3 farming, which already use monoculture.

In farming of marine fish there is not much experience apart from KMK. They informed, they often

experienced diseases (i.e. especially parasites), when using trash fish, but since using pellet feeds

they have not had disease issues. However they reported that the seabass grown in marine

environment had a much darker skin than those from brackish water cages. This could be a symptom of a disease. However this is so far only speculative.

The problems of the shrimp farming will not be discussed.

Supply of pharmaceuticals is mainly through imports from China and Thailand. Some companies are

present like Biomin, BASF and CP, and it was informed that Beyer, Spanish and Indian

pharmaceutical companies are in the process of entering.

Genetic selection The present “pond spawned tilapia” is not performing as well as tilapia in other countries , and it was

suggested a selection program should be started in Myanmar. However given the absence of

research facilities in Myanmar, it would be more feasible for the commercial (tilapia hatchery)

stakeholders to import selected strains from within the region or to join with foreign companies or

organisations, who already have been operating family selection programs for many decades.

As for Rohu the narrative part of DoF 2015 Fisheries Statistics mentions that a project for the genetic

improvement of Rohu has started, as the fish does not grow as fast as before, and the colouration

also has become duller. The information is not detailed as to whether it is based on mass selection

or family selection or whether it boils down at simply diluting the ‘old’ (inbreed) broodstock with new wild caught breeders, which have not suffered from ‘genetic drift’.

3 The pangasius species farmed in Myanmar is different from those farmed in Vietnam


29

As for the Asian Seabass KMK informed that they had broodstock collected from many places,

though they did not specify, if the breeders originated from wild stocks of Myanmar, or if they

imported specimens from ‘better performing’ strains s.a. Australia.

Equipment It is difficult to imagine any type of equipment related to freshwater fish farming, which is not

already in the Myanmar market, supplied from China or Thailand. Simple pellet feed blowers or live

fish pumps however could have some market potential, but this has shown difficult to introduce to the Vietnamese pangasius farmers.

In short term it could show a need for turnkey deliveries (see chapter 9) of fish hatcheries, both for

freshwater and for marine species. There are companies, who have the financial ability, if they

decide to enter or expand their presence, professionally. It is known that KMK has plans to expand

and modernise the Asia sea bass hatchery, but also the larger corporate freshwater fish farms should

be approached, especially now as they are looking more into monoculture.

Hatchery/nursery The 26-27 government freshwater fish hatcheries produced 22 species and 600 million fry a year

according to the DoF 2015 statistics. There are no collective figures of the production from the

private hatcheries, but Ben Belton et.al. report that the hatcheries, they visited, produced between

30 to 700 million hatchlings/larvae per year. Rohu sells at approximately USD 3 per 100,000 fry.

Most private hatcheries are reported to have increased their production capacity two to three fold

in recent years. Larvae is normally produced to order of the farmer, while juveniles from nurseries are traded via middlemen.

For the farmers having their own nursery ponds, the area ratio to grow-out ponds is 1:5. The main

advantage of nursing the larvae/fry themselves is of course reduced production costs. If

fingerlings/juveniles are purchased they are usually transported by specialised boats using the hull as the well. The largest fingerling boats can carry 300,000 three inch juveniles.

In chapter 4.2.6 the Asian seabass hatchery of KMK has been described.

Feed

There are two major companies producing fish feed using extruders: Htoo Thit and Shwe Taung -

Ngwe Taung feed mills. In addition there are several smaller ones, which mainly produce for their

own use, and there is at least one smaller company still producing shrimp feed.

Previous mentioned Htoo Thit was visited. They

now have two extruders, one single and a new

twin screw (able to produce pellets from 1.8 to 8

mm), and maximum production capacity is 800

tons/week. During the hot season March-May, the

demand for feed is lower, as the farmers reduce

feeding. Htoo Thit is the only feed mill in Myanmar

producing floating pellets, which are the more

popular, like in most of Asia/SE Asia. The feed is

distributed through two major outlets or from the

factory and 70% is transported by boat. Figure 17: One of the family members owning the Htoo Thit

group


30

The company estimated that only about 15%

(20% mentioned by others) of the Rohu are

produced by pellets, while the rest is fed farm

made feeds made from peanut oilcake and rice

bran. The reason for this low percentage is said

to be, because feeds in Myanmar are up to 20%

more expensive than in other countries in SE

Asia. Another contributing factor may be that

most of the feed is produced for the farming

activities of the feed producers themselves,

including buy back contracts, and thus is not

available in general. Thus the pricing is not made in a competitive environment.

Table 3: Htoo Thit feed prices May 9, 2016

Item MMK/Viss USD/kg Remarks

Nursery (mesh) 910 0.52 freshwater fish

Floating, 2 or 2.5 mm 1,140 0.66 -

Floating, 4 mm, 28% protein 1,080 0.62 -

Floating, 4 mm, 25% protein 970 0.56 -

Grow out, sinking 810 0.47 -

Grow out, sinking 720 0.41 Pangasius

Freshwater prawn 1,350 0.78 Made to order

Snakehead 1,820 1.05 Made to order

Crab 1,810 1.04 Made to order

Asian seabass, 4 mm floating 2,340 1.35 Made to order

Frog 1,710 0.98 Made to order

The above domestic supply/demand situation leaves the aquafeed market open for imports.

Myanmar Aqua Feed Association informed that 10,000 tons of fish feed were imported during the 2014-15 fiscal year, while during 2015-2016 at least 30,000 tons had been imported.

Feeds are imported among others from Thailand. E.g. KMK uses Thai Union seabass feed, which cost

between THB 870 to 1020/25kg i.e. between USD 0.99- 1.22/kg. For the imported feed there is an

additional 2% ‘income’ tax and 1.5% customs and transport costs.

Furthermore, the Dutch-owned company Dehuis has been imported floating freshwater fish feeds

from their livestock and aquafeed factory in Vietnam on a “trial basis” and marketed them at competitive prices. They reported it as economical viable.

Myanmar Aqua Feed Association has recently announced that Green Feed Viet Nam Corporation

together with the Fisheries and Feed Development Public Company will build a livestock and

aquafeed processing plant in Yangon (http://consult-myanmar.com/2016/03/18/vietnamese-company-

to-build-animal-feed-processing-plant-in-yangon/ ref Myitmakha News Agency)

Foreign investments are already common within livestock feed mills in Myanmar, but strangely this

has not happened within fish feed mills until now. Foreign investments in aquafeed mills are very common in most SE Asian countries.

Figure 18: 70% of the feed is transported by boat

http://consult-myanmar.com/2016/03/18/vietnamese-company-to-build-animal-feed-processing-plant-in-yangon/



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A Danish fish feed company “Aller Aqua” is reported to be quite advanced in its plans for making a

factory in Myanmar, and during the mission in Myanmar people were seen wearing the cap from the

French feed company Ocialis, which has a factory in Vietnam.

The main ingredients utilized by the feed mills are rice bran, peanut oilcake, sesame meal, fishmeal,

and soy cake. Apart from the imported Indian soy cake, all ingredients are sourced locally. Fishmeal

comes mainly from Tanintharyi region. There are 5 fishmeal factories in the Myeik region producing

different quality meal depending on the fish source (likely they do not extract fish oils). Myanmar

also has a fishmeal export in 2014-15 DoF reported it to 21,158 tons valued at USD 12.8 million, among others it is exported to Vietnam.

Although hatchery and nursery feeds for both freshwater and marine fish are in demand in

Myanmar, they are not produced locally, and they have to be imported from Thailand or China.

4.3.3 Downstream – domestic and export market observations

Farmer informants mentioned farm gate prices of Rohu between USD 1-2/kg and exporter price for

frozen, gutted product between USD 1.2-2/kg. Retail price was informed to be USD 2.5/kg. In below

Table 4 the prices of the common traded fish in one of the wholesale wet markets in Yangon during May 2016 are presented.

Only eel and Hilsa are not farmed. Hilsa is a (marine) herring type, which migrates into coastal areas

or large rivers to spawn. If caught in freshwater/rivers its taste is immensely popular in Myanmar, Bangladesh and other nearby countries.

Table 4: Price range of common species during May 2016 at Kyi Myint Taing-Baho wholesale fish market, Yangon

Currency/unit Rohu Mrigal Catla Pangasius Hilsa Eel

MMK/Viss 1,800-2,800 3,500-6,000 1,500-3,200 1,500-4,800 8,500-15,000 3,500- 5,500

USD/kg 1.03-1.61 2.01-3.45 0.86-1.84 0.86-2.76 4.89-8.62 2.01-3.16

The largest fish wholesale market, San Pya, is located at a river in the western part of Yangon. Shwe

Padauk is a smaller market opened in October 2014, further north on the Yangon River. Both

markets trade fish from aquaculture and capture fisheries. Farmed fish accounts for 65- 70% of the

fish traded at San Pya, and around 50% of those traded at Shwe Padauk. Fish traded at the two

markets is distributed in the city area, upland and abroad. Fish farmers sell to local collectors or

directly to the traders in Yangon, if the volume is large enough to fill one boat (16 tons). Boats are the main form of transport and account for as much as 80% of the transported fish volume.

Domestic market observations:

Most farmed freshwater fish sold for the domestic market, are the smaller sized fish, even 0.25-0.50

kg. Most of the carp types do not process easily, and they are sold whole or gutted.

Myanmar people in general have a preference for freshwater fish apart from the coastal people.

Even people in Yangon prefer freshwater fish. With a market supply of about 300,000 tons of

seafood per year to Yangon the majority was of freshwater origin until last year, when marine origin

became 50%. An anecdote told by the vice-chairman of Myanmar Fishery Products Processors &

Exporters Association was that he gave his mother in Yangon some very fresh, selected marine

shrimp, only to be told next day that if he gives her shrimp, they should be freshwater prawn and not from the sea.


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Earlier estimates by FAO on seafood consumption per capita in Myanmar was at an amazing high 55

kg/cap/year similar only to Malaysia. This has though been revised, and present estimates are

between 20-25 kg, similar to most other countries in the region. Most of the ‘seafood’ consumed in

Myanmar originates from capture fisheries, whether inland or marine. Farmed fish only accounts for

about 20% of the domestic fish consumption in Myanmar, while farmed fish accounts for about 80%

and 55% of domestic fish consumption in neighbouring Thailand and Bangladesh, respectively.

With the development of the middleclass and a larger urban population than the present 30% of

population, one can expect a higher farmed fish consumption over time, as well as expect that other

species like snakehead, pangasius and tilapia become more important commodities for domestic

consumption. They have the advantage that they more easily can be processed into more consumer convenient products.

Asian seabass somehow falls in between, what is considered a freshwater or marine fish, as it is very

popular even for home cooking. The main seabass producer, KMK estimates that the domestic

market (of 400-600g/sizes) even is larger than the domestic market in Thailand. Also according to

the vice-chairman of the Exporters Association the Asian Sea bass has a very good market demand both in domestic and international markets, and supply cannot fill the demand.

Export market observations:

Rohu is mainly exported as whole, gutted and frozen in the size of 1-2 kg with about 90% being 1 kg

fish. Larger fish may be exported chopped and frozen. The main markets are in the Middle East

(Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates), mainly for Asian expats/workers, among

whom it is very popular. There is a much smaller volume, but still notable, sold to Bangladesh as frozen whole fish.

Table 5 and Table 6 show the top 10 important trading partners/importers of fisheries products (incl.

capture fisheries) from Myanmar.

Table 5: Top ten importing countries of ‘fisheries products’ from Myanmar ranked by value (2014-15)

Country Value (‘000 USD) Volume (tons)

China 169,685 75,733

Thailand 127,750 127,538

Malaysia 31,400 16,769

Singapore 22,959 21,454

Saudi 22,353 20,689

Kuwait 21,935 23,428

Japan 18,846 6,750

UAE 14,588 13,839

U.K 10,189 5,654

Bangladesh 9,013 7,603

Source: DoF fisheries statistics 2015

Table 6: Top ten importing countries of ‘fisheries products’ from Myanmar ranked by volume (2014-15)

Country Volume (tons) Value (‘000 USD)

Thailand 127,538 127,750

China 75,733 169,685

Saudi 23,689 22,353


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Kuwait 23,428 21,935

Singapore 21,454 22,959

Malaysia 16,769 31,400

UAE 13,839 14,588

Bangladesh 7,603 9,013

Japan 6,750 18,846

U.K 5,654 10,189

The small number of countries taking a major share of Myanmar’s fisheries export is remarkable.

The top five importing countries in the above tables accounted for 77.5% of the total value or 80% of

the total volume of exports during 2014-2015 out of a total of 39 registered trading partner

countries. It is expectable that the neighbours like China and Thailand are the top 2, but it was

commented in the export association that it was a vulnerable country mix, when so few countries make up such a large share of the trade.

The importance of Thailand may be even larger, as the statistics likely do not include all the

Myanmar fishing vessels landing their capture directly in Ranong.

During the EU and USA blockade, due to the military regime, China was the main outlet of seafood.

They were easy customers, not demanding quality assurance schemes, approvals, no regulations etc.

just relying on the agreement between the buyer and seller, which meant that low price was the

main issue. This actually was said to have constrained the competitiveness of the processing and

exporting companies, as they lost focus on seafood safety and quality. This was a large challenge to

the industry, when the ‘world market’ reopened, as they had to adapt to being in much better

control over the quality, safety and origin of their raw material and final products. China has now

also started enforcing regulations especially addressing seafood safety, and even DoF has started

making safety standards for seafood to be exported. Norway has supported the training of seafood safety/quality technicians via funds to UNIDO.

The importance of Thailand, as a trading partner, likewise dates back to the time of the embargo, as

the export had the purpose to introduce ‘new country of origin’ labels on the boxes in Thailand.

Bangladesh also had that role, when importing farmed shrimp from Rakhine. Other countries, which served as hubs during the embargo, were Malaysia and Singapore.

Myanmar has 20 processing companies, of which half are EU certified. To a large extent they depend

on fish from the marine capture fisheries, but the natural resources are getting less, and therefore

DoF has introduced a 3 month ban on offshore fishing during the rainy season. Even one processor

reported that she imported fish from Argentina for processing. 18 years ago they produced premium

quality Asian seabass/barramundi fillets based on wild catch selling to Australia (Qantas airlines).

Even Australia is not among the top ten importing countries, the processing companies mentioned

that they have a very good market in Australia and sell white fish fillets at USD 10/kg. This remark is

of importance, when production of seabass becomes larger than the local demand, as Australia is an important market for barramundi/Asian seabass farmed in other countries in the region.

The Myanmar Fishery Products Processors & Exporters Association would like that Myanmar

produces more farmed marine fish rather than the current farmed freshwater fish; because farmed

marine fish could give them a more stable supply than from fisheries. Marine fish has a larger


34

regional/global market than the freshwater fish, and importantly the marine fish are physically more suitable for processing and value adding.

The opening of the export is not only due to lifting of the trade embargo, but also the lifting of

Myanmar’s own export duty and of the EU’s import duty of 13.8-20%. This has been instrumental for increasing the competitiveness of products from Myanmar.

4.4 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT The DoF under the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development (MLFRD) has an

elaborated structure (Figure 19), and as written in the narrative part of the DoF 2015 statistics, it

also includes aquaculture research and extension. However neither research nor extension were

verified during the mission. There is no real (fisheries and) aquaculture sector institute in Myanmar.

When discussing the issue of research, MFF expressed that since 1980 (i.e. for 36 years!), there is NO

R&D in fisheries and aquaculture in MLFRD.

As was written in a Norad Scoping Report from 2015 DoF has had the principle function of licensing

and collection of licensing fees, and little attention has been given management functions, research

and development.

Figure 19: Organogram of Department of Fisheries according to DoF 2015 statistics

In the new Government there is an overall plan to reduce the number of ministries and that will

include MLFRD, which is said to become part of a “Ministry for agriculture, irrigation, fisheries and

livestock”, and there will be one deputy minister in charge of livestock and fisheries.

The Fisheries Technologies School in Yangon has mainly had the mandate to train fishing boat crew

at extension training centres in 3 different regions, Pyarpon, Sagaing, and Yangon. However in a


35

2014-concept note of an Italian project, it is referred to as the ‘Fishing Institute of Technology’, and

according to this project, this institute was to build capacity in marine aquaculture especially in the

extension services towards small-scale farmers (of which in fact there are very few). People in the

sector and different donor teams could not confirm that the “school” had become an institute, and

furthermore it was informed that the Italian project did not take off, apart from some marine

hatchery training at the promoting institute in Italy.

Of relevance to this assignment the mission visited the DoF Marine Fish Hatchery Station in

Pyinhtetaw village, Kadan Kyun Island (in the Myeik archipelago) about 20km Northwest off Myeik. This is the only marine aquaculture ‘field station’.

The facility has 13 acres of land and 6 staff. Earlier they tried to produce grouper, but since 2009-10

Asian seabass for restocking. Although it has all facilities for keeping broodstock, larvae rearing

tanks, rotifer culture, etc., currently there seems to be little operation. According to the chief

technician, the budget from the government was the issue. The salaries are paid by the local region,

while the equipment is supported by central government, but question is, who pays the operational

costs? They said that they had no international support, though FAO some years ago supported

some equipment such as pumps, filters and GRP tanks, as well as the main technician went to Thailand for grouper hatchery training.

When discussing the role of DoF especially at the local level, it should be mentioned that DoF, as

probably all government organisations, have the practise to rotate its officers after 1-3 years.

Although it likely serves some purpose, a lot of locally gained knowledge is lost. The mission saw it

most clearly in Rakhine, where the director and vice director had only been working there for 3

months and 1 week, respectively, which made it difficult to get real local information. Also one can

imagine that if transferring the chief technician from the marine hatchery near Myeik to other

assignments in an inland state/region, all the expertise she had gained would be lost. This is a high

risk factor in capacity building of any institution. There is pressure from within the DoF staff to stop these rotations, and it was predicted to be changed in one or two years.

Expertise in the marine resources of Myanmar may also be sourced at 3 universities, which have

Departments of Marine Science, namely Myeik University, Pathein University and Mawlamyine

University. Pathein University is the only teaching some aquaculture. Others like Yangon University has a Zoology Department slightly involved in some aquaculture related issues.

USAID has a project focusing on a) strengthening the physical capacity of some universities,

especially Yangon university, through development of fully functional water and seafood quality

assurance lab, and b) strengthening human capacity on campus by training of faculty, staff and

students in capture fishing, aquaculture, fish handling procedures, lab techniques, seafood certification programs, processing, marketing and conservation of aquatic resources.

The seafood quality/food safety lab made at Yangon University can be used by the processing

companies to send their staff for training, and the project also has a student internship program with the private sector to fill the gap between university and industry needs.

The education system of Myanmar was decades ago considered the top in Asia. It was however

mismanaged by the former regime, especially Yangon University, which was forced to close its

bachelor education over several periods (up to 4 years) since 1988 up to 2014. This has of course influenced the human resources of Myanmar.


36

UNDP is planning to establish a Marine Science Research Centre in Myeik in 2017 funded via GEF. It

has not been possible to get more detailed information about this centre, neither from UNDP nor

Myeik University s.a. its affiliation, mandate or recruitment of human resources.

When discussing institutional framework in Myanmar fisheries the Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF) has to be mentioned although its exact institutional role is difficult to assess.

Edited exert from the DoF 2015 fisheries statistics:” Myanmar Fisheries Federation is one of the

highest NGOs commercial organizations to encourage and promote fishery industries of Myanmar as

well as to support the fishermen and fish farmers. It was created by Myanmar Fisheries Association in

order to enable the fishery entrepreneurs from states and divisions to join it on 1 st December 1998.

MFF was constituted as a member of ASEAN Fisheries Federation in 2002. Some of the active

association under MFF are Myanmar Shrimp Association, Myanmar Fish Farmers Association,

Myanmar Fishery Products Processor and Exporters Association, Myanmar Aqua Fish Association,

Myanmar Marine Fisheries Association, Myanmar Freshwater Capture Fisheries Association, Crab

Entrepreneurs Association. Apart from this, local level fisheries associations are formed in line with

public administrative structure such as division/state, district and township levels. DoF and MFF are

like twins under the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development's umbrella. In order to

better manage the fishery sector, DoF and MFF have teamed up to work together to achieve our

common goal as stated in our regional slogan "Fish for the people". MFF performs many supporting

roles s.a.: (1) Supports application made by its members to DoF to undertake fisheries and

aquaculture activities. (2) Recommends application to the Livestock and Fisheries Bank for loan

application. (3) Has a good support from the government and can negotiate directly for members’

benefits. (4) Helps with negotiation of selling and harvesting of fish; and shrimp and working collectively”.

MFF members includes 33,230 individuals, 1,392 companies and 13 organisations. Likely most of the

private sector involved in fisheries and aquaculture are members, and likewise many of the senior or

retired staff in DoF and relevant government institutions such as universities are members or even advisors to MMF.

MMF seems to hold a powerful position in the society, and they seem informed, thus foreigners,

who would like to know and to be linked to relevant stakeholders, can with good results contact MMF to get briefed and receive advice to the purpose of their visit.

4.5 HUMAN RESOURCES AND LABOURER In the education system, a new trend has emerged in Myanmar that students are not attracted to

aquaculture or seafood processing. This trend was seen years ago in Malaysia and recently to a

lesser degree in many other Asian countries.

A BSc graduate salary is MMK 200,000/mth (USD 170). This is not much more than a worker.

If using the salary levels from softshell crab farming as a guidance, as they follow the minimum

salary levels approved by the government, a worker has MMK 108,000/mth (USD 91) plus food and

accommodation, thus an indirect salary level of about MMK 160,000/mth (USD 135). Without having

the salary levels for workers in freshwater farms, they are told to have increased 20% from 2014 to

2015 (Ben Belton et.al.). This has however lead farmers to employ less fulltime staff and more dayworkers. Fulltime workers have a 48-hour working week (8 hrs/day and 6 days/week).


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For modern large-volume marine fish farming it is necessary to have skilled/trained workers, as they

handle large values, which can be up to USD 100,000 worth of biomass in one cage just in feed costs,

and the staff has to be able to make informed decisions. This European investors appreciate, but it

will be a challenge for the local companies to fully appreciate and to invest in training (and salaries) of the staff.

When starting a marine fish farm, workers can be sourced with an experience from freshwater fish

farming, but workers from fishing villages will have the important basic skills in working at sea.

Whichever background there will be a need for the workers to receive training in operating a marine

fish farm. As there are no training facilities in Myanmar, the training will have to be performed by

the experienced foreign, production manager, which anyhow is compulsory in the staffing.

However during the start up the production manager will be more involved in administrative work

related to planning of purchases and installations. Thus an alternative - at least initially - will be to

send a number of staff for training abroad in preferably tropical, large-volume marine fish farming.

There are few options in the tropical region. Norad (2012-16) has supported a ‘large-volume’

demonstration farm in Nha Trang area of Vietnam. Although under Research Institute for

Aquaculture No.1, it is operated on a commercial scale with 8 x 60m cages and working boats etc.

and had a production of 107 tons of pompano in 2015. It has training courses for skilled workers and

production manager with curriculum available in English. Norad (2010-14) also supported Phuket

Coastal Fisheries Research and Development Center, Department of Fisheries, Thailand with 3 cages.

It was more a testing and development activity as part of a larger capacity building project of Coastal

Fisheries Research and Development Bureau. According to the final report, the production was

minor in 2014, and local people at Phuket has informed that the cages have been moved from the

original farm site to the front of the station. It is not known, whether the cages are stocked, and if

training in large-volume farming is still offered.

Earlier English proficiency would have been widespread, however it should not be expected after 50

years of military regime, as they did not support this “skill”. However it should be expected that most university graduates have some English skills that could be enhanced.

4.6 LEGISLATION AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK This report will not go into a review of the present, outdated legislation and regulatory framework

back to 1989-90, as revisions and a new law have been made and may be endorsed at any moment.

Also the old laws have been reviewed very detailed in a recent report elaborated for Norad:

Myanmar – Norway “Possible areas for cooperation within the fisheries and aquaculture sector”

April 2015.

4.6.1 Legislation regarding starting a (marine) fish farm

The mission was met with confusing statements from people at all levels, when they were asked,

how the regulations are for starting a marine farm or for being a foreign investors. Some said no

problem, while most said that foreign investments only were possible, if having a local partner according to the foreign investment law (see next chapter).

According to FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture National Aquaculture Legislation Overview Myanmar

(undated), the license to perform aquaculture in the sea is given by the Director General of DoF for a

maximum 3-year period, while the leasing arrangement depends on who is the rightful government body over that particular area of ‘fisheries waters’.


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When regional DoF officers in charge were asked, how to apply for a site, and if a foreigner could apply, they said: ‘you would have to go to the Minister, and you also should have a local partner’.

The possible reasons for the confusion about procedures and regulations is that irrespective of the

law, for 15 years everything was decided by a Minister appointed by the military. There are several older case stories of foreign investors in marine aquaculture, and each given different conditions.

The new government, since March 2016, is making changes to many laws and regulations as well as

changes to the key staff. The revised fisheries law is said to have been drafted and is being

appraised/reviewed by a “legislative reviewing” committee. According to information, fisheries will

be governed by the local governments, while aquaculture will be managed centrally. Likely within August, the changes will be announced.

It was informed that to get a sea site for farming, is simpler at the moment that getting a land

license for aquaculture, as the local region can decide for the sea. How this will be in the new law is not known.

It is informed that the number of years a license is applied for, should be mentioned and justified in

the application according to the schedule of the investment project. What range will be given is not

informed, but in the ‘old’ regulations, it was 3 years or 4-5 years renewable, but actually it was

decided in the end by the Minister. A one-year renewable license has also been mentioned, but this

was later informed only to relate to locals in fisheries and aquaculture. The first one-year approval

for aquaculture would be given by central DoF, while successive renewals would be given by local

DoF.

4.6.2 Legislation regarding foreign investor in Myanmar

During previous military regime there was a foreign investment law, which said that a foreign

investor had to have a local partner, and this is, what often was explained to the mission by

informants, when interviewed. But currently the Foreigner Direct Investment (FDI) Law is being

revised to favour foreign investors, but the final draft has not become public yet, apart from below

exerts from: http://www.embassyofmyanmar.be/business%20info/investmentpolicy.htm regarding Foreign Investment Policy and Procedures:

Foreign investors are allowed to make investment either in the form of a hundred percent wholly

foreign-owned enterprise, or partly-owned, or in the form of a joint venture with a private or public

local entity. If it is a partly-owned concern or a joint-venture, the minimum foreign capital shall be 35 per cent of the total equity capital.

For full article see Annex 2: Foreign Investment Policy and Procedures, which also details possible

procedures to be followed by a foreign investor.

This is ‘fresh from the press’ information (happened after the mission), and it makes the previous

Myanmar Citizens Investment Law No 4/94, and Union of Myanmar Foreign Investment Law No 10/880 history to discuss. Also those two laws are said to be merged into one in the new law.

Apart from the above article made by the Myanmar Embassy in Belgium the Directorate of

Investment and Company Administration (DICA) clearly describes the process of applying for the Myanmar Investment Committee (MIC) approval on its website http://www.dica.gov.mm/.

http://www.embassyofmyanmar.be/business%20info/investmentpolicy.htm

http://www.dica.gov.mm/


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MIC will investigate a proposal/application and accept or reject it for formal review within fifteen

days. If accepted, the proposal will be reviewed and either refused, or a MIC permit is issued within

ninety days.

Just like the Investment Law, the Companies Act will be renewed. The new Companies Act is drafted and will most likely be approved by the new government late 2016.

In the news on June 9th 2016 it said a new MIC had been announced. The previous commission was

dissolved at the end of the former government’s term in late March. The MIC usually met several

times a month to consider a small number of investments, but as it had been out of action for more

than 10 weeks, around 100 proposals had piled up for appraisal mostly from garment and seafood processing.

Law and directives are modernised every week. By visiting the website of DICA

http://www.dica.gov.mm/ there is a good chance to get the latest information of regulations in power.

4.6.3 Examples of foreign company investors in (marine) aquaculture

There are few foreign marine aquaculture investors established in Myanmar. In freshwater

aquaculture there are possibly more ‘hidden proxy’ investments made through local companies. This

is not really different from several other SE Asian countries, as the legislation sometimes is very

restrictive towards foreign investors such as in Thailand. Tropical marine aquaculture is still not considered an investment object, as investors have no documentation that it can be successful.

Following FDI companies were encountered during the mission:

A Japanese JV pearl oyster company in Tanintharyi region. Started in 1962-63, but was

nationalized by the military regime and is now operated by the local ‘partner’.

A Korean company MSC started in 2008 with a production of Eucheuma/kappaphycus/

gracilaria in a buy back arrangement with local fishermen. This is a 100% FDI company given

permit directly by the Minister during military regime

Thai CP group has a JV with PPT in Myeik for production of whiteleg shrimp in 100 ha ponds.

Dehuis is building a livestock feed mill planned to open in 2017. They import the aquafeeds from their factory in Vietnam. There is no information, if they have a local partner.

Texchem food Sdn Bhd (Malaysia) has a JV with Mascot Industries co. ltd (Myanmar) within seafood processing since 2003. The mother company Texchem Ltd (chemicals) established already in Myanmar in 1997. Texchem Marine Labutta Ltd is a new 2015 JV also with Mascot Industries for softshell crab production, likely it is a continuation of an existing Malaysian invested softshell crab farm near Yangon with the brand name Crab World.

Green Feed Vietnam Corp. together with Fisheries and Feed Development Public Company are building a livestock and aquafeed mill in Yangon in a JV

KOSPA ltd is a cold chain logistics service provider. They have cold storage and refrigerated trucks, transporting seafood etc. It is a JV between Yoma Strategic Holdings Ltd (Myanmar) and Kokubu & Co. (Japan).

Aller Aqua, Danish feed mill is considering seriously making a feed mill in Myanmar. Partner unknown if any.


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4.7 F INANCING AND INCENTIVES Subject to consideration of the MIC, a FDI company may obtain some privileges, such as a tax grace

of five years, lease of (land) area up to 50 years with possible 20 years extra, and tax exemption for exported products.

The ‘size’ of the incentives is depending on the volume of investment and overall project. In the new

law:

A foreign investor, who invests and operates under the Foreign Investment Law has the right to enjoy

appropriate economic benefits particularly in the form of tax incentives, as well as to repatriate

profits and to withdraw the legitimate assets on winding up his business. There is also an unequivocal State guarantee against nationalisation and expropriation.

It was said directly: The banking system does not work. Do not count on agricultural, fisheries and

livestock bank. There was a bank collapse in 2001-2002, but the banks were said to have recovered.

Whatever the financing from local institutions is, this is normally not an issue for the

foreign/Norwegian investor. If needing loans/credit or financing/they would use known established

sources inside their own mother country e.g. in Norway, Export Credit, Norwegian Export Credit

Guarantee Agency, Norfund as well as different other governmental support agencies.

What is important to the foreign investor, is that the banking system works related to money

transfer, and in that field the services are getting better every day. Even some days ago a few Myanmar banks started offering credit cards to local customers, which is a new service.

5 OVERVIEW OF MARINE FARMING POTENTIAL IN TANINTHARYI AND

RAKHINE REGIONS

In the ToR two regions Tanintharyi and Rakhine had specifically been selected for the mission to visit and appraise the potential for development of marine farming.

From the Birdseye view the two regions seemed to have one thing in common, which was the

abundant natural marine area resources of archipelagos or protecting islands with little human

impact.

However the similarity in potential is not that strong, when looking more closely, thus the two regions are dealt with separately.

5.1 RAKHINE STATE Rakhine state, bordering to Bangladesh, has been isolated inside Myanmar for the last 50 years

during the military regime. It is the second poorest state/region in the Union of Myanmar. The

Embassy of Norway explained that the purpose to select this state was not only to look into

investment potential but also to have an evaluation of the possibility to develop coastal aquaculture

to empower coastal people/fishermen, meaning more like a livelihood exercise, compared to the

visit to Tanintharyi, where the purpose was to make a screening of the potential for investments in

especially large-volume marine fish farming. The possibilities for livelihood, aquaculture development in Rakhine will be addressed in a separate note to the Embassy.


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Based on the information in below chapters 5.1.1 to 5.1.5 the following recommendation is given for the Rakhine area:

It is not recommended for the foreign investor in large-volume marine fish farming.

There is a real risk of even strong cyclones/typhoons making a landfall in Rakhine –

historically every second year.

Only a few islands offer any protection against strong monsoon wind impact, but not against

cyclone impact.

The water depths nearby above islands are too shallow – mostly less 10 m and strong

turbidity from mangrove and riverlets. The only slightly possible area is already under

construction for making a large oil and gas project by the Chinese Government.

Rakhine is still fairly isolated, with poor market access – no cargo port facility and small, local

airports with infrequent flights.

There is currently a risk of religious unrest between Buddhists and Muslims, and foreigners

can only enter specified areas, if holding special permits.

For a foreign investor interested in Myanmar, it does not make sense to take the above risks, when there is another region with optimal conditions.

5.1.1 Climate conditions

Most of coastal areas of Myanmar have three seasons:

Cool: November to February is warm or hot, but the air is relatively dry.

Hot: March to May is intensely hot

Rainy: June to October is the SW monsoon season with high rainfall.

The following climatic data were downloaded from windfinder.com and represent averages of

observations taken from start of 2012-2016 (7 am to 7 pm) and some “real time” data from Sittwe airport or a tide station close by.

Figure 20: Climatic data recorded at Sittwe Airport (averages from start 2012-2016)


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Figure 21: Wind direction distribution in percent at Sittwe airport. Yearly average from start 2012-2016

As seen from Figure 21 the main wind directions are from NW to SW with average wind speeds of 4-

6 knots. This means that if possible, cage sites should be found behind islands providing protections to those directions.

The actual wind speed and gusts can be much stronger, as can be seen from real time values from

July 2016 in Figure 22. The wind speed of 18 knots with gusts up to 22 knots is actually similar to a

fresh to strong breeze, which in tropical Myanmar is considered very windy, but this does not pose

any real constraint for modern marine fish farming, as the selected site should provide some protection against the main strong wind directions.

Figure 22: 'Real time' climatic data near Sittwe airport including wind gusts, wave height and direction as well as tide data


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It is seen that the real time data also includes wind gusts and wave height and direction, however to

have this information, as a historical overview covering several years, excel reports have to be

ordered from windfinder.com.

Figure 23: Wind speed conversions

Figure 24: Tide heights (m) during July 2016 at station close to Sittwe airport.

Rakhine has a simple diurnal tide of max 2.5 m

At the moment windfinder.com provides weather information from following Myanmar

airports/stations: Sittwe, Kyaukpuy, Sandowey/Thandwe, Pathein, Yangon, Dawei, Myeik and Kawthaung.


44

The following weather figures are from weather-and-climate.com

Figure 25: Average min and max air temperatures in Sittwe

Figure 26: Average monthly sea temperatures off Sittwe

Ref to Figure 26 the sea temperature is optimal for fish farming, while the colder spell from December to February likely is beneficial for maturation of broodstock.

Figure 27: Average monthly precipitation at Sittwe

In Figure 27 it is seen that during the SW monsoon the monthly rainfall is a high 1m, which would be

a challenge unless farming sea bass, as the monsoon will create a lot of river runoff and turbidity, especially as any site would have to be close to the coast (see below).

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-min-max-Temperature,Akyab,Myanmar-Burma

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-water-Temperature,Akyab,Myanmar-Burma

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitation-Rainfall,Akyab,Myanmar-Burma


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Figure 28: Average monthly daily rain at Sittwe

Figure 28: The November column is presumably an error.

Figure 29: Average monthly humidity at Sittwe

Cyclones/typhoons This chapter has to come under the heading of Rakhine, as this state is the one receiving most

cyclone landfalls in Myanmar. Bay of Bengal has had the world's deadliest tropical cyclones on

record, but most of these strike India and Bangladesh, while the coast of Myanmar ‘tends’ to

experience only the weaker cyclones.

However the cyclone Nargis, which hit Irrawaddy in May 2008, was the first stronger cyclone (Low

level Category 4) ever recorded in that area and a so-called once-in-every-500-year event. People

likely remember it, because of the widespread fatalities (more than 100,000 people), and damage it

caused. It was thought that the reasons for this strong impact was that no warnings were given by

the military regime and that it hit a lowland area, where people never had the experience.

And in October 2010 a cyclone Giri tracked towards Myanmar with a category 5 status and as such a

substantially stronger storm. Peak winds were believed to have reached 250 km/h. Cyclone Giri

made landfall near Hunter's Bay just about 50 km East-Southeast of Sittwe. It became the most

intense storm ever to strike Myanmar and made landfall with 175 km/hr. It was weakened once over

land, but it caused a lot of physical damages, however people had this time received warnings, and

fatalities were below 200.

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainy-days,Akyab,Myanmar-Burma

https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Humidity-perc,Akyab,Myanmar-Burma


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Local people say that the number of cyclones making landfall in Rakhine is reduced from every 2nd or 3rd year, and it seems the cyclones tend to bend into Bangladesh.

However when looking at the list of tropical cyclones that affected Myanmar (Table 7), it is clear that

there has been a cyclone basically every second year, which would make this area very risky to choose for an investor in marine fish cage farming, as the investor would have other options.

Table 7: Tropical cyclones affecting Myanmar after 1992

Name Category Year

BOB 01 Category 1 1992

Forrest Category 4 1992


02B Tropical Storm 2002

01B Category 1 2003


Mala Category 4 2006

Nargis Category 3-4 2008

Giri Category 4-5 2010

5.1.2 Area resources/sheltering/depths/environment

From naval charts it is obvious that a large area resource of Rakhine are its shallow, intertidal

mudflats with strong riverine impact. This means seaweed and bivalves are very potential for

mariculture in the region because of the combination of appropriate water levels and water high in

nutrients for seaweed and phytoplankton as well as detritus for bivalves.

Figure 30: Between Ramree Island and Kyauk Pyu Island there is the only protected, deeper waters of Rakhine, but this is the shipping lane into a Chinese supported oil and gas terminal under construction on Muddy Gwaine Island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_North_Indian_Ocean_cyclone_season






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Mala

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Nargis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Giri


47

(between the larger two islands), and thus not relevant for cage site. Furthermore Hunters bay took a direct hit by one of the last cyclones.

The local DoF suggested Thandwe, Taung Goat,

Kyauk Phu and Gwa, as sites of good potential

for marine fish farming. But when looking on the

naval charts, the depths are in general shallow

(< 10m), and sites are not protected. There are

very few sheltered sites in the sound between

Ramree Island and Kyauk Phu with sufficient

depths for large-volume fish farming (15-30 m),

but there is a shipping lane marked on the chart

and according to Google Earth, there is what

seems like an oil depot under construction at

the small islet of Muddy Gwaine (this must be a

Chinese Government supported oil and gas

project). Furthermore it is clear from Google

Earth that the area has a lot of mangrove and many small rivers, so all together, and especially

having an oil and gas project as neighbour, it is NOT recommendable to an investor in large volume

farming. Likely there are many sites, which are suitable for small scale farming with traditional

wooden frame cages, but they would face difficulties in reaching a market for their product. And

finally, it should be considered before promoting development of small-scale fish farmers that

especially the small scale farmers cannot afford the risk of the cyclones.

Figure 32: Sites visited around Sittwe

Figure 31: Meeting with Rakhine Dept. of Fisheries


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5.1.3 Cultural and socio-economic issues

Rakhine state has been a closed/restricted area

for 50 years and has therefore experienced little

progress till now. There have been clashes

between the local army and the central not long

time ago, and the state experienced sectarian or

ethnic unrest between the Buddhist (Myanmar

people) and the Moslem (Bengali people). In the

reception area of the small airport of Sittwe, a

poster shows the many areas, Bengali’s villages,

refugee camps etc. where foreigners only can

visit, if they have special permit (Figure 34)

Although the marine fish resources

of Rakhine are considered good and

has a good brand name, all larger

fishing boats are from Myeik and

Yangon, and thus there are no local

landings, apart from the more

artisanal local fishermen for the

local consumption. This means that

now, when there is no shrimp

farming after the last cyclone in

2010, all 6 local processing plants are laying idle.

There has been attempts to make a

larger jetty for the larger fishing

boats to land their fish, but the

boats are not locally owned, and the

market outlet from Rakhine is not

simple.

At a meeting with Rakhine Fisheries

Federation (RFF) the processing

plant owners expressed that they

were tired of waiting for the shrimp

farming to re-bounce. They were

open to get involved in lobster,

marine fish farming or farming of

bivalves or seaweeds, and of course

take the processing and marketing

part of the value chain. This would

also be necessary, as the possible future small-scale local farmers do not have market access. But

Figure 33: Main street of Sittwe, capital of Rakhine. The lack of traffic is a symptom of lack of development

Figure 34: Immigration desk at Sittwe airport. Irrespective of board notice, whatever is not mentioned, is restricted.


49

however willing they were, also to invest, they had the major problem that they did not know how

to do and organise the farming, and thus this would take a targeted technology transfer for it to pick

up. This would be suitable for a NGO to organise locally with technical assistance from outside. However most NGO’s are not working with the coastal villages.

However Ohn Ye Paw village, which was

visited, had a livelihood development

project coordinated by UDNP. The village

has large intertidal mudflat areas next

door that could be an entry point for

bivalve farming.

Large part of the Rakhine men have

migrated in search for jobs, leaving many

old people, women and children in the

villages. In the fishing villages the

leftover fishermen are out during the

night some 5-10 miles offshore. The

importance of the fishing is probably 50%

of the household income, as the family

also is involved in agriculture and

livestock. The women also work as

dayworkers for a very low MMK 3,000/day (USD 2.5). They should be able to earn much more from farming seaweeds or clams, if the profit sharing between the value chain segments was made fair.

There is a Sittwe University, but there are very few job opportunities for the students. A professor

working part time in Sittwe and Yangon said, they would like to work in aquaculture, but they have

to travel far to get a job. Likewise the local seafood processing sector is not employing staff.

5.1.4 Present or historical aquaculture and seafood activities

There is de facto very little aquaculture left in Rakhine after the shrimp farmers gave up. It was

informed that there was 4 private hatcheries producing Rohu and tilapia, thus there must be some

freshwater fish farms. In the Kalatan River near Sittwe there had been some Asian seabass cage

farmers, but they were not found and must have stopped.

In 1983-1990 there was a seaweed project, but it also stopped, because the crops were eaten by green turtles!

Earlier Rakhine was one of the larger states

producing shrimp (pls. consult chapter 4.2.5).

DoF has a plan to make 10 shrimp pilots each 44

lakhs i.e. MMK 440,000 to demonstrate semi

intensive farming, which would be the only way

shrimp production could pick up.

In conclusion there is no coastal aquaculture in

Rakhine at the moment, as well as there is little

tourism. If coastal aquaculture is developed with

a livelihood perspective in mind, the local

Figure 35: Ohn Ye Paw Village - most men have migrated in search of a livelihood.

Figure 36: Standing next to one of the idle extensive shrimp farming areas in Rakhine State


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villagers likely will embrace the development, as they have few alternatives.

5.1.5 Infrastructure

Little or none. A power grid was seen, even entering some smaller villages, but there was no power

in the grid at the moment. However due to the Kyauk Phy oil and gas project by the Chinese

government (see also above), the infrastructure is informed getting better, and the region will get more reliable electricity and internet.

The Indian government is going to support Sittwe with a large pier for cargo, which also will help bringing Rakhine out of isolation.

5.2 TANINTHARYI The purpose of the visit to Tanintharyi was to make a screening of commercial possibilities for especially developing large-volume marine fish farming a.o.

Based on the following sub chapters the following recommendation is given for the Tanintharyi area:

It is highly recommended for the foreign investor in large-volume marine fish farming

There are till now no cyclones/typhoons making a landfall in Tanintharyi, and the monsoon

impact is less than in Rakhine i.e. less wind and rainfall.

The archipelago has more than 800 medium and larger sized islands and holds endless

potential large-volume cage sites, protected and with suitable depths.

As most of the islands are more than 20 km from the mainland, the turbidity from

mangroves and riverlets will be minimal.

Tanintharyi has good market access being close to Yangon and Thailand, processing plants,

port facility and local airports with frequent flights, incl. some international.

There is no ethnic unrest or security threat.

5.2.1 Climate conditions

The following climatic data were downloaded from windfinder.com and represent averages of

observations taken from start of 2012-2016 (7 am to 7 pm) and some “real time” data from Myeik

airport or a tide station close by.

Figure 37: Climatic data recorded at Myeik Airport (averages from start 2012-2016)

The average wind speed (Figure 37) varies at 3-4 knots with the most prevalent wind direction from

the NW (Figure 38) as well as during the month with the strongest average wind (Figure 39). This makes it easier to identify protected sites.


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Figure 38: Wind direction distribution in percent at Myeik airport.Yearly average from start 2012-2016

Figure 39: Wind direction distribution in percent at Myeik airport. April average from start 2012-2016


52

Figure 40: Tide heights (m) during July 2016 at station close to Myeik airport

The tide (Figure 40) is a typical diurnal tide, but since the tidal amplitude can be a more than 5 m.

The associated tidal currents can easily be more than 2 knots. Hence naval charts with current

notifications, as well as direct measurements of the currents are crucial, when choosing a site, as

one should find a site with max 1 knot velocity (0.5 m/s) as an ideal. This is actually one of the few

constraints in identifying a good site in the Tanintharyi region.

Figure 41: 'Real time' climatic data near Myeik airport including wind gusts, wave height and direction as well as tide data

In Figure 41 the real time climate during some days of July are shown. Wind gusts of 11 knots is just

above a gentle breeze. Historic data however should be ordered from windfinder.com to verify the

wind conditions based on historic real time data, including the wave heights. During the 3 months of

monsoon period the waves are quite choppy making it difficult to go by smaller speed boat from Myeik harbour out into the archipelago.


53

The below two tables have been downloaded from http://en.climate-data.org/location/326/

Figure 42: Precipitation in Myeik (mm)

Figure 43: Climate data from Myeik

Between the driest and wettest months of the year, the difference in precipitation is 802 mm, while

during the year, the average temperatures only vary by 2.9 °C. Thus it is advised to search for a site well off the mainland coast to avoid any negative impact from freshwater runoff and turbidity.

Water temperatures in Myeik were reported to vary within 26-32 °C, which is within comfort zone

for continuous growth of tropical fish.

5.2.2 Area resources/sheltering/depths/environment/riverine impact

The Myeik archipelago has more than 800 medium and larger sized islands and holds endless

potential large-volume cage sites, protected and with suitable depths. The area is so vast that one

can only speculate about the carrying capacity, but it should be a couple of 100,000 tons, but due respect has to be made to avoid larger coral reefs.


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Figure 44: Overview of the archipelago off Myeik (Mergui)

Most of the sites will be a little far out i.e. >20 km, and thus not close to any infrastructure such as

harbours or jetties. An investor would have to include a total setup with floating work platform or satellite shore base with storage and ice plant in addition to the cages and work boats.

Figure 45: An example of suitable areas east of Ross Island


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However the natural resources are

pristine, and there are very few small-

scale farmers, which could pose a

biosecurity risk, and likewise there is no

human impact apart from the coastal

area very close to the mainland.

Figure 47: Sites visited by the mission in Myeik area

5.2.3 Cultural and socio-economic issues

Tanintharyi has much better living conditions than Rakhine, and it is developing rapidly, having

tourism, many seafood resources and easy market access e.g. to Thailand as well as to Yangon.

Figure 46: Typical islands of the Myeik archipelago


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It is not known of any ethnic issues with the

Moken or “sea gypsies” inhabiting much of the

archipelago. But overall it seems a safe and

stable place. It is an area, which sees an influx of

workers from other regions, meaning that there

is enough work opportunities, as well as many

migrant workers use it as a hub into Thailand or further.

5.2.4 Present or historical aquaculture activities

The first farming was said to be a Japanese JV in pearl oyster, which started in 1962-63.

Marine fish ‘farming’ started in the region in 2000 with small, wild caught Asian seabass and

grouper, which were fed trash fish and sold within 2 to 3 months. The fish were sold for the live fish

market collected by Hong Kong vessels.

The Myanmar Company KMK started Asian seabass farming in 2004 buying wild caught juveniles and

feeding trash fish. In 2007 he started a hatchery. For several years there were disease issues and no

profit, but in 2013 he changed into use of pellet feeds, and since then it became profitable and

expanding.

In 2004 the PPT Company was given the ‘right of use’ of 4 circular 40m HDPE cages imported by DoF

from China. These larger cages were used for farming of groupers, however not successfully due to too shallow site and too large cages for rearing groupers.

In 2008 a Korean company MSC started a production of Eucheuma/kappaphycus in a sort of buy

back arrangement with local fishermen.

The number of small scale cages in the whole region is not known, but at least there are only some

30 farms in Myeik region, each holding possibly 10 cages of 5x5 m, mainly used as holding stations for export of live grouper.

In conclusion Tanintharyi is the only region of Myanmar having some emerging marine aquaculture.

5.2.5 Infrastructure

Little or none is available apart from in the towns. The public power supply in Myeik is said to be

stable after a group of business people invested in Myeik’s own power supply.

Myeik has a larger fishing port, and an airport with several international flights and very frequent daily connections to Yangon and other domestic destinations.

Figure 48: A stilt, fishing village on one of the islands


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5.3 POTENTIAL SPECIES

5.3.1 Marine fish, potential large-volume species Which are the “ideal criteria” that qualify a fish species for large-volume marine cage farming?

The market qualities are the most important

It should have an existing larger volume market. I.e. a market that does not respond negative if being supplied large volumes s.a. 20-50 tons a week

o No farmed tropical marine fish have at present large-volume global market, but instead the species should at least have a considerable domestic or regional market. If this market also is absent, it will be very resource consuming to introduce an unknown species, which should not be underestimated, UNLESS the species is very cheap, which however farmed marine fish are not, when compared to farmed freshwater fish.

The fish species should address the white fish segment, suitable for trading either fresh-on-ice or frozen in some processed product. This also means that it should be a medium-value fish with a low enough production costs to be able to enter value-adding.

It should preferably have a versatile use in the market – such as different sizes as well as product wise – or even have a demand as sashimi product.

Biological qualities of the ideal species

It should have a suitable biology for rearing in large cages i.e. free-swimming and schooling behaviour, good growth rate on pellet feeds and good feed conversion rate (FCR) i.e. less than 2.

It should have a ‘closed lifecycle’ i.e. hatcheries should be able to mass-produce juveniles in large, consistent numbers and preferably all year round.

It should not stress easily or have a skin structure, which is easily damaged during handling to avoid being susceptible to diseases or loss of appearance.

It should preferable be a native species; however it can also be argued that a native species that has gone through a domestication, may cause a bigger threat to the natural fauna.

No tropical fish species fulfils all the above criteria, but there are clear candidates. In Myanmar the

below species have the most of the qualities mentioned above:

Asian seabass/Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) Pompano (Trachinotus sp.)

And to a lesser degree

Cobia (Rachycentron canadum)

Only these three species will be dealt with in some details.

Asian seabass/Barramundi

Very large Asian seabass originating from capture fisheries were commonly seen in local wet

markets both in Myeik and Sittwe presented as whole fish and as cutlets. It is already farmed by KMK

Company and some pond farmers. The Asian seabass market in Myanmar is estimated to be larger

than in Thailand, and therefore no domestic farmed seabass are exported. KMK has developed an

integrated setup in Myeik region, holding hatchery, nursery, brackish water and marine cages – as

well as processing plant (seabass is however processed and distributed in Yangon) – i.e. KMK is involved in most of the value chain - apart from notably the feed.


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The Asian seabass is a truly euryhaline species, meaning it can live equal well in full marine

environment as in pure freshwater, and therefore it is very suitable for large-volume farming in the

coastal regions with some riverine or monsoon impact such as many places in Myanmar.

The growth rate is good or appropriate. It would require minimum 8 months to reach 600 g, which is

a marketable size in Myanmar. However the major regional seabass market segment is minimum

800 g or better from 1.2 kg (12-13 months of culture) for filleting. The feed conversion rate (FCR) is

between 1.4 - 1.6 for the 800 g size, which are acceptable values.

Production cost of seabass in marine cages is a little higher than if farmed in brackish water ponds.

In ponds the FCR is 0.1 better and the growth rate to 1.2 kg is 1 month faster (source: pers. comm.

Australis Co, Vietnam), however the seawater grown Asian seabass has a better meat quality and

taste.

There are notable regional markets in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia, as well as growing markets in other countries like India and Arabian countries.

There are several large volume farms in Asia producing Asian seabass with mixed success: Australis

in Vietnam, Fega Marine, Lucky Sumadra and Phillips Bali Barramundi in Indonesia and Oceanpick starting up in Sri Lanka.

Table 8: Asian seabass production in the world (tons)

Country 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Malaysia 20,022 17,607 20,125 17,005 30,446

Thailand 13,434 16,157 19,317 16,761 16,811

Taiwan 22,633 24,066 26,148 28,803 11,5824

Indonesia 5,738 5,236 6,198 6,735 5,447

Australia 3,628 4,353 4,473 3,560 3,440

Saudi Arabia - 18 20 20 2,525

Singapore 509 392 211 524 477

USA 400 400 400 400 400

Cambodia 120 140 140 150 200

Myanmar 80 80 80 85 95

Others 131 109 26 209 160

Totals 66,695 68,557 77,138 74,252 71,581

Source: FAO FishStatJ 2016

Most local people in the sector think that Asian seabass is the candidate species for Myanmar, as it has a very good local and regional demand.

Current domestic market prices for Asian seabass sized 600g to 1.5 kg is USD 4.5 to 6.5/kg or USD

10/kg fillet. Farm gate price was MMK 8,000 /viss (USD 4.2/kg). Price in Thailand is informed to be

4 The substantial reduction (17,000 tons) in the Taiwanese production of Asia seabass in 2014 is not real . In

earlier years the Asian seabass statistics from Taiwan included the Japanese seabass (Lateolabrax japonicus),

which is grown in the cooler northern part of Taiwan. In 2014 Japanese seabass occurs for the first time with a

separate Taiwanese production of 14,000 tons and with a total production of 129,000 tons incl. China.


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USD 3.7/kg, thus also creating “unreported” imports from Thailand, however it is not known if the Thai fish has been grown in ponds or cages, the latter bringing a higher price.

Pompano species

Two species are farmed in SE Asia. The long fin pompano (snub nosed pompano) Trachinotus blochii

is one of the native pompano species of SE Asia distributed all the way from southern Japan to the

southern tip of Africa and down to Australia. It is the most common available species for farming in Asia due to its year round spawning.

The other is the exotic, short fin pompano (golden pomfret/pompano, FAO: permit) Trachinotus

falcatus, which is native to the Caribbean, but was introduced to Taiwan in late 1980’s. Short fin

pompano is the most preferred farmed pompano in SE Asia due to its faster growth rate, however it has a short spawning period, and it is sometimes difficult to spawn in the tropics.

Comparing the growth rate of Asian seabass to short fin pompano, the seabass has slower growth,

but the growth is nearly similar to the local, longfin pompano, up to the 700 g size. After this size

Asian seabass is performing better than the latter, because it eventually becomes a larger fish.

If targeting production of fillets, the fish needs to be 1.2-1.5 kg, and controlled experiments in

Vietnam indicates that for this large size the short fin pompano shows a better growth rate and FCR

than the long fin pompano. This is related to that short fin pompano becomes sexual mature when

more than 4 kg, while long fin pompano reach sexual maturity already at 1.5 kg (25-30 cm). However

if targeting a marketable fish of 500-600 g, both fish can be produced in 6 – 8 months, but for this size the long fin pompano shows the better FCR.

KMK has imported short fin pompano from Taiwan for trialling.

Biological facts:

Pompano enters the surf zone along sandy beaches, where they feed on benthic crustaceans

(isopods), which are tossed up by the breaking waves. This makes pompano adapted to a mechanical

rough environment of ‘sand blasting’. They have an incredible high swimming speed, and the skin has very small scales making it very strong.

The strong skin is likely an important farming attribute making them less susceptible to disease

attacks. However due to their high swimming activity level, they thrive with very good oxygen

availability. Pompano can eat a similar diet as Asian Seabass

Production volume

Only recently the importance of pompano did appear in the FAO statistics, when China revised its

entries back to 2007. Still other major producing countries do not specify their pompano production,

including Taiwan (a major producer), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam. Thus it is

estimated that the yearly production could be 130-140,000 tons making it the most important farmed tropical marine fish species in SE Asia.

Table 9: Pompano production in the world (tons)

Country 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

China 80,000 115,000 112,000 112,000 110,000

Hong Kong 74 87 238 7 57

Dominican Rep 300 350 350 350 350


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Philippines ... ... ... 285 ...

Singapore 4 46 105 207 137

Total 80,378 115,483 112,693 112,849 110,544

Source: FishStatJ 2016

The pompano is traded mainly as fresh on ice whole fish and as live fish. For export to the USA filleted pompano is the main product.

Though native to Myanmar pompano does not have an established market, as it is not common in

fisheries. In other countries the pompano is traded at about USD 5-6/kg farm gate for local consumption (Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia) as well as for the international market (USA).

Cobia

Cobia was earlier considered to be the most promising species for tropical, large-volume cage

farming, however some of the published growth rates and especially FCR’s were not achieved under

real farming conditions, and it has shown that best growth and quality is achieved, if feeding trash

fish.

Depending on feed, cobia shows a very fast growth, as a 4-5 kg fish can be produced in 8-12 months

and a 7 kg fish in 16-18 months. This is the main quality that attracted many large-volume farming

investors to look into cobia farming, however the other important fact is that it is an unknown fish in most seafood markets even it is a circumtropical fish.

The challenge when farming cobia is that when feeding with pellets, FCR is more than 3, when

producing fish of about 7 kg, which is the preferable size in Taiwan, the main market. The feed cost

alone for producing 1 kg of the larger fish size would be close to USD 5, meaning that the farm gate

price should be USD 8/kg, which the international market price does not support. Presently

production in SE Asia is mainly by small-scale farmers using trash fish. However there is a very cyclic

supply/demand situation, and in Vietnam the farm gate price fluctuates from USD 4 to USD 7, which means that every 2-3 year the farmers lose money and divert to other species.

Table 10: Cobia production in the world (tons)

Country 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

China 36,356 37,210 38,014 39,627 35,563

Colombia 112 111 145 150 150

Panama 150 300 230 980 1,459

Taiwan 2,152 1,124 1,384 1,993 1,397

Viet Nam 461 622 11,743 1,873 1,761

Totals 39,329 39,378 51,517 44,623 40,330

Source: FishStatJ 2016

KMK is planning to make a trial with cobia this year, although it does not have a market in Myanmar. KMK considers to make a value added product targeting the local consumers.

5.3.2 Others: bivalves and seaweed

In Vietnam, which is comparable to Myanmar, bivalve is a farming sector producing more than

220.000 tons (clams, blood cockles, oysters). Apart from a substantial domestic market the clams

and blood cockles are processed and exported, and a precondition for the success is to have the


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grow-out areas certified according to EU standards. With the vast areas available and little urbanisation and industrialisation in Myanmar, it should not pose a problem.

At meetings with RFF in Sittwe and with CEC of MFF in Yangon, it was promoted by several owners of

processing companies to start farming of bivalves. The processing companies are a crucial element in the value chain providing the market access of the product, which the farmers totally depend on.

The bivalve farming normally does not need large investments. The main challenge starting bivalve

farming is to arrange for organising the farmers to provide enough volume for the product to enter

processing.

The advantage of promoting bivalve farming is that it does not need feeding, as the phytoplankton

and detritus is provided by nature. The area depends on the species: tidal mudflats (clams, cockles

and oysters) or sheltered areas with <10 m depth (mussels and oysters). Equipment depends on the

species and area like racks, baskets and longlines. The bivalve spat (seed) can either be collected,

attracted by collectors or if very intensive farming, the spat may need to be produced in hatcheries.

In addition to this the most important input factor is labour making bivalve farming a very suitable livelihood creating production.

Seaweed farming is also a large volume production. Normally it is not an activity in need for large

investments, as it is a very low-tech production. However like the bivalve farmers, the seaweed

farmers need processing like at least baling to access the market. As can be judged from the Table

11, there is an ever increasing demand, and the farming has lifted many families from poverty. One

important success factor is “volume”, for two reasons: If too small, the grazing by rabbitfish will be

devastating for the single farmer, however if there are many farmers, the impact towards the single

farmer is less. Secondly if there is a small production volume, it will only attract one middleman, and

the price offered will be low. As volume goes up more traders will be attracted, and the price will

increase towards its international level. This is the experience in other countries. In the start with a

.limited production, the dried seaweed will be baled in blocks and exported to countries having

processing plants for making e.g. semi-refined carrageenan (the colloid). According to some websites

the Korean seaweed company in Tanintharyi has been given land to establish a processing plant,

though it is unclear, which kind of processing. If it is production of colloids one baling station in

Rakhine would be sufficient for Rakhine to benefit from the ‘market outlet’ in Myeik.

Table 11: Production of Eucheuma/Kappahycus seaweeds in the World (tons dry weight)

Country 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Indonesia 3,399,436 4,539,413 5,738,688 8,323,263 8,971,463

Philippines 1,669,247 1,697,682 1,608,401 1,428,707 1,434,714

Malaysia 200,000 239,450 331,490 269,431 245,332

China 64,260 61,800 95,880 92,560 42,860

Solomon Islands 8,000 8,000 12,850 16,700 18,000

Tanzania 6,885 6,601 6,510 6,689 6,705

Vietnam 4,779 3,818 5,344 4,733 4,284

Kiribati 4,745 4,290 8,280 2,250 3,580

India 4,240 4,500 4,500 4,500 3,000

Madagascar 4,000 1,699 1,400 3,575 8,363

Zanzibar 128 621 904 2,008 5,330

PNG 100 250 1,400 2,500 3,000


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Myanmar 2,094 2,336 3,200 1,600 2,100

Timor-Leste 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500

Brazil 700 700 700 700 700

Fiji 560 450 560 470 550

Saint Lucia 15 11 15 26 21

Others 0 1 26 28 11

Totals 5,370,690 6,573,122 7,821,648 10,161,240 10,751,513

5.4 NGO’S RELEVANT TO MARINE FISH FARMING Apart from MFF there are not any, which has a special dedication to development of marine aquaculture.

Key staff at MYFISH, which is one larger project now entering its second phase, said that marine

aquaculture has never been the focus of any previous or current projects, and the present report will

be the first dedicated report.

It can be discussed, if MMF and its subordinate associations are NGO’s in the traditional sense,

however they seem to be the best organised and relevant group, having members in every corner of

the Union, which likely could be mobilised if needing involvement of an NGO to coordinate

developing seaweed and bivalve farming.

6 MYANMAR AQUACULTURE IN A REGIONAL CONTEXT

This is two-fold:

The neighbours as competitors for investments

The neighbours as market for the seafood production – or competitors in the market.

Investments:

Myanmar starts with a handicap, as it has been isolated for many years, while the other countries

were moving ahead. Thus some countries in the region, such as Vietnam, have already been

successful in attracting a.o. Norwegian investors in the aquaculture sector.

Neighbouring Thailand is not a competitor to Myanmar for the serious, foreign investor. The

investment laws of Thailand are outdated with too many restrictions on foreign investments

especially in the primary production sector. One needs a local proxy with majority, which is very

risky.

As for investing in Myanmar, both neighbours, China and Thailand, are important foreign investors in

Myanmar in farming of freshwater fish and shrimp, as well as companies providing the seafood trading logistics into China and Thailand.

Other regional countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Vietnam are also investing in Myanmar

in aquaculture related companies. They see the large potential, and they are used to work in countries, where legislation is neither clear nor comprehensive.

Trading:


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Myanmar has for many decades had a prolific seafood trade towards China. China is the largest

importer of seafood from Myanmar by value. Recently China has changed from being a seafood

exporting country to becoming a seafood importing country. Supported by an increasing growth of

the Chinese middleclass, this trend, being a net seafood importer, is expected to increase. Myanmar is in a very good position to become the main seafood basket of China.

The trade relationship with Thailand is different. Thailand is the 3rd largest seafood exporter in the

world, and it is the largest importer of seafood by volume from Myanmar. Which in short means that Thailand is doing the value added to the capture fisheries resources of Myanmar.

It is envisaged that as the Myanmar processing companies become modernised and get their

certifications in place, Myanmar will be able to develop its own exports. Myanmar has been given

different preferential status in trading, which could be a competitive edge.

The ‘export’ to Thailand may even be much larger than the statistics indicate. Myanmar fishing

vessels are ‘smuggling’ openly their cargo into Ranong. In Myeik it was mentioned that 90% of the

capture fisheries production from Tanintharyi boats are landed in Ranong. Thailand has several

advantages in infrastructure, long term market access and labourer. There are many illegal

immigrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and Lao. Thus cost of production in Thailand is low compared to other Southeast Asian countries.

Examples of trading in up and downstream sectors:

Myanmar imports from Thailand:

PL’s of tiger and whiteleg shrimp and freshwater prawn

Fingerlings of tilapia and Asian seabass, selected tilapia broodstock

Feeds from Thai Union (Asian Seabass and grouper) and CP (shrimp)

Artemia cysts and fish juvenile feeds (INVE Thailand)

Farmed Asian seabass for Myanmar domestic market.

Myanmar exports to Thailand

90% of capture fisheries products from Tanintharyi region

Live grouper and lobster to Ranong (some)

Asian seabass to Ranong, but it stopped, because domestic price was higher.

Myanmar imports from China

Machinery, pumps, air blowers, paddlewheels

Pharmaceuticals

Fish juveniles

Myanmar exports to China

Frozen seafood

Live mud crab (150g and above)

Live freshwater eel

Live lobster, mantis shrimp and grouper via Chinese transhipment facilities in Yangon.

Live marine fish for Hong Kong, every 2-3 months a HK boat brings live marine fish to Hong Kong.


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Myanmar imports from Bangladesh

Rakhine used to buy tiger shrimp PL’s, but now reduced due to disease problems

Myanmar exports to Bangladesh

Farmed freshwater fish like Rohu, Catla and Mrigal

Hilsa (migrating marine herring-like fish)

Small mud crabs from Rakhine for softshell crab farmers

During embargo Rakhine processing plants sent products to Bangladesh for re-export.

Others:

Commodity trade. India imports beans and Myanmar imports soybean meal (for livestock

and aquafeeds)

Imports of freshwater prawn PL, whiteleg shrimp PL, pompano and cobia fingerlings from

Taiwan.

Vietnam imports fish meal from Myeik

7 CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING MARINE FISH FARMING

Myanmar society is developing very fast, and revisions of laws are published ‘every week’. This can

be confusing, but on the other hand it cleans up the even larger confusion created by the previous

laws and administration. The better transparency in the decision process is an important element in the private sector development.

According to several interviews, the following challenges were considered important in developing marine aquaculture in Myanmar:

Technology (how to get the technology into Myanmar)

Investments

Support from the government (finance and administration/procedures)

Market access (small volumes/lack of consistency).

As already mentioned, there are no expertise, no research or sector institute in Myanmar, which

could be mobilised to assist marine aquaculture development. Thus local investors entering new

aquaculture activities have always depended on making extensive study tours abroad to learn for

their own decision process. After this they would hire in foreign expertise for a period to make the

technology transfer. Another possibility, which till now is not widely used, is to enter a partnership

with a competent foreign investor. Both of these are possible strategy, but this development is not

sustainable by itself. Eventually Myanmar has to build its capacity of the public sector to be able to

support the sector development. As one example this should be in providing fish disease diagnostic

services, as the private sector cannot develop depending on bringing in foreign expert for each

challenge they face. This is a new service mentality that has to be appreciated by the government

sector, alternatively developed by the private sector.

If you are a coming foreign investor in marine fish farming, it is possible, with the new law coming, to

have 100% FDI, but as a foreign investors, you maybe are ‘in control’ of the technology inside your

company, but you are on your own in a very changing and challenging legal and administrative

environment, where there still will be uncertainties for years to come. Therefore it may be the


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better solution to enter a JV with a competent local partner/investor, who understands the country and especially the local market.

8 INTEREST OF MYANMAR COMPANIES AND AUTHORITIES

There are potential, local partners, who have local experience, finance and local market access, and who are interested in joining foreign partners in marine fish farming.

The potential investors met are from the seafood processing sector, companies having fishing fleets

or companies already involved in some aquaculture related activity. At several meetings it was

repeated that they are willing to join and invest, if they are convinced about the technical and economic feasibility.

There was only one company, which directly expressed that they were not interested in making any

partnership with a foreign company and that was the Htoo Thit group, which is a successful family

owned company already in full control of all the value chain segments in freshwater fish farming,

and they had no ambition to enter marine fish farming. This company can still be interesting to

Norwegian companies, as they are a professional customer, who would appreciate several of the

Norwegian products in the support sector.

The CEC of MFF, the local MFF’s as well as the regional DoF’s interviewed were all fully supporting

the development of near and offshore cage aquaculture. They all feel that development of this

sector could bring in a hope for the future, as most of them were aware that the marine resources of

Myanmar are getting depleted by the current level of fisheries. But as the secretary of the Myeik

branch of MFF noted that even they would like to start marine aquaculture, they do not know how to start. Money is available especially in the Myeik region.

9 POTENTIAL NORWEGIAN ROLE IN IMPROVEMENT OF THE VALUE CHAIN

According to the Tor, the mission was to visit two regions, Tanintharyi and Rakhine to appraise their

potential for investments in marine aquaculture. Although the two regions may seem similar, when

looking at Google Earth, the similarity in potential is different.

Rakhine state, bordering to Bangladesh, has been isolated inside Myanmar for the last 50 years

during the military regime. It is the second poorest state/region in the Union of Myanmar. The

Embassy of Norway explained that the purpose to select this state was not only to look into

investment potential but also to have an evaluation of the possibility to develop coastal aquaculture

to empower coastal people/fishermen, meaning more like a livelihood exercise, compared to the

visit to Tanintharyi, where the purpose was to make a screening of the potential for investments in

especially large-volume marine fish farming. The possibilities for livelihood, aquaculture development in Rakhine will be addressed in a separate note to the Embassy.

Based on the information in above chapters 5.1.1 to 5.1.5 the following recommendation is given for the Rakhine area:

It is not recommended for the foreign investor in large-volume marine fish farming.

There is a real risk of even strong cyclones/typhoons making a landfall in Rakhine –

historically every second year.


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Only a few islands offer any protection against strong monsoon wind impact, but not against

cyclone impact.

The water depths nearby above islands are too shallow – mostly less 10 m and strong

turbidity from mangrove and riverlets. The only slightly possible area is already under

construction for making a large oil and gas project by the Chinese Government.

Rakhine is still fairly isolated, with poor market access – no cargo port facility and small, local

airports with infrequent flights.

There is currently a risk of religious unrest between Buddhists and Muslims, and foreigners can only enter specified areas, if holding special permits.

For a foreign investor interested in Myanmar, it does not make sense to take the above risks, when there is another region, Tanintharyi in the east, with optimal conditions.

Based on the previous chapters the following recommendation is given for the Tanintharyi area:

It is highly recommended for the foreign investor in large-volume marine fish farming

There are till now no cyclones/typhoons making a landfall in Tanintharyi, and the monsoon

impact is less than in Rakhine i.e. less wind and rainfall.

The archipelago has more than 800 medium and larger sized islands and holds endless

potential large-volume cage sites, protected and with suitable depths.

As most of the islands are more than 20 km from the mainland the turbidity from mangroves

and riverlets will be minimal.

Tanintharyi has good market access being close to Yangon and Thailand, processing plants,

port facility and local airports with frequent flights also some international.

There is no ethnic unrest or security threat.

The following presents a listing of some of the commercial opportunities identified within the value

chain with a potential to be improved, and where Norwegian companies and investors could contribute.

a) Development of large-volume marine fish farming in cages would be one of the larger

improvements to the sector. This involves primarily identifying the competent investor from

Norway, who can bring in operational and management expertise.

Secondly this involves opening to the potential local investors the proven, circular cages and

other supporting equipment that Norwegian companies can bring into Myanmar. Large

volume, circular cages are still not in demand, but it is expected to start within the next year

or two. It will likely be in a very competitive environment with China and Taiwan, with whom

Myanmar has a trading tradition. Several Norwegian companies have the products and

expertise, and they should start entering talks with potential investors in Myanmar as they

need convincing of the technical and economic feasibility.

b) The demand for marine fish juveniles is already obvious. The local hatchery cannot fill the

demand and imports take place from especially Thailand. The species would presumably be

Asian seabass, pompano and to a lesser degree cobia. Norway has several companies able to

provide turnkey hatchery solutions including management start-up. They are encouraged to

pay a visit to the company already investing in marine fish hatchery, as well as some of the

potential, larger investors.


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c) There is likewise a need for hatcheries for freshwater fish, producing snake head, pangasius

or all-male tilapia. The same companies as above should pay a visit to the large, fully

integrated, freshwater farming companies and present their track record. The companies

are in a diversification process away from the carp like species, to focus more on

monoculture. This opens for a better focus on quality juveniles.

Norway also holds companies with expertise in selection program for tilapia, who may

already be able to supply broodstock of a selected tilapia strain. The Norwegian genetic

companies are suggested to visit the abovementioned large, integrated farming companies

as well as they should visit the different new private hatcheries being established.

d) Feed production, especially for freshwater fish. It is obvious that feeds are undersupplied or

tied up to buy back arrangements that not all farmers are willing to enter. Norway has

several companies already engaged in the region and thus already acquainted with similar

species. They should consider local feed production or establishing a distribution/agents

setup supplied from their regional feed mills.

e) There is a large potential for bivalve farming, as the near coast is very rich in nutrients due to

the large runoffs especially during the monsoon. At the same time there is a demand for the

bivalves, as several processing plants expressed interest in processing bivalves. Some of

these companies may be interested in establishing or facilitating the establishing of large

scale operations. Norway has one company with proven technology for mussel farming. It

may be premature for Myanmar, but it is recommended to contact the processing

companies via MFF and or RFF to see, if they will take the lead. One idea to promote to the

processors is to produce large size green mussels, and to process them into a half -shell value

added product like the New Zealand green lipped mussel product. With such a product the

large volume will not be a precondition, as it would if making IQF mussel meats. Thus the

half-shell product may be a good entry point.

f) Within health products including vaccines, it is likely not efficient to use vaccination

programs in their present freshwater farming setup with large, multispecies ponds. However

there is an increasing trend towards farming single species like tilapia, snakehead and

pangasius in smaller ponds. This opens for introducing much better biosecurity. Thus

Norwegian vaccine companies involved in the region should visit the larger farms, who are in

the diversification process to learn their challenges and evaluate, if vaccination is a viable

improvement.

Another market option for a possible Norwegian competent investor is to develop a fish

disease lab with diagnostic services as well as consultancy in biosecurity and health

management.

g) Other equipment such as feed blowers and live fish pumps may already have a market for

the freshwater farms, but the question is, which Norwegian companies have the interest to

sell hardware bits and pieces. In that case one should consider entering an agent agreement.


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There are many other areas, where the value chain could be improved, but they are e.g. related to

better linkage between the value chain elements to create better conformity between supply and

demand, issues that cannot be solved by foreign investors or technology providers.


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ANNEX 1: MISSION PROGRAM AND PEOPLE MET

Duration May 1-16, 2016

Members - Niels Svennevig (NSV), tropical aquaculture specialist, Bac Ninh, Vietnam, (team leader, main author) (subcontracted by RR Consult, Tromsoe, Norway) - May Myat Noe Lwin (Noe Noe), local aquaculture specialist, Yangon, (subcontracted by RR Consult, Tromsoe, Norway)

Sunday 1/5 Description Venue: Yangon

Niels Svennevig evening arrival VN Air Yangon airport Team meeting, schedule updating

Overnight at Royal Khattar Hotel (NSV)

Monday 2/5 Description Venue: Yangon Briefing meeting

- Ann Ollestad, Ambassador - Harald W. Mathisen, Counsellor

Royal Norwegian Embassy

Meeting - Dr. Pe Tin, nutritionist and technical advisor to Htoo Thit Co., Ltd (aqua-feedstuff)

Myanmar Fisheries Federation (MFF) Building

Meeting Central Executive Committee members of MFF a.o. - Win Kyaing, Secretary General - Dr. Toe Nandar Tin, Vice President - Soe Tun, Vice President MMF and Chief of Party USAID Project - Han Tun, Chief Executive Officer - Dr. Pe Tin, Vice Chairman of Myanmar Feed Association (and technical advisor)

MFF Building

Meeting United KMK Co., Ltd - Khin Maung Kyaw, Managing Director - Thet Naing, General Manager

KMK HQ


Tuesday 3/5 Description Venue: Yangon Myanmar Fishery Products Processors &

Exporters Association - Myo Nyunt, Vice Chairman, also Managing Director of General Food Technology Industry Co., Ltd - Tin Hla, Technical Advisor

MFF Building

Meeting USAID sustainable seafood industry development project - Soe Tun, Chief of Party - Maung Maung Naing, Field Manager

USAID project office in MMF Building

Meeting/visit Htoo Thit Co., Ltd (aqua feed factory, processing, cold storage etc.) - Zaw Lin, Director - Winn Htut Aung, General Manager - Dr. Pe Tin, nutritionist and technical advisor

Htoo Thit HQ

Visit Shwe Padauk freshwater fish market


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Overnight at Royal Khattar Hotel (NSV) Wednesday 4/5 Description Venue: Yangon/Irrawaddy

Meeting MYFISH staff - Dr. Ni Lar Shein, Deputy Director (DoF) - Xavier Tezzo, Research Fellow, WorldFish Myanmar

Department of Fisheries compound

Meeting/visit Arsha Thar Co., Ltd Samaluk freshwater fish farm - Tun Myint Oo, Production Manager - Nanda Shwe, Nanda Shwe Fish Farms (- Kyi Lwin Oo, Director of Myanvet Com., Ltd)

Irrawaddy

Dinner meeting Myanmar Shrimp farmers association - Dr Kyaw Tun Myint, Chairman - Aung Naing, Secretary

Fuji Restaurant

Overnight at Royal Khattar Hotel (NSV) Thursday 5/5 Description Venue: Yangon

Meeting/visit Aung Moe Khine Manufacturing Co (softshell crab and shrimp farm, processing and cold store and fishing fleet) - Aung Naing, Managing Director - Aung Shwe, Manager

Kyauk Tan Township (2 hrs drive)

Visit Thilawa port Visit China Town Yangon


Friday 6/5 Description Venue: Yangon/Myeik Transfer Yangon - Myeik by air

Meeting United KMK Myeik (processing squid and shrimp from fisheries, seabass marine and brackish water farms, seabass hatchery) - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager (responsible for aquaculture operations)

Office of United KMK Myeik (KMK supported the mission by making car and speedboat transport available during Myeik stay)

Meeting DoF Myeik - Sein Thaung, Myeik Division Officer - Htun Naung Oo, Township Fisheries Officer - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik

DoF Office Myeik

Meeting with Myeik University - Prof. Dr Nan Mya Han, Head of Dept. of Marine Sciences - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik

Office of United KMK Myeik

Overnight at Pearl Laguna Hotel

Saturday 7/5 Description Venue: Myeik Visit by boat to KMK marine cage farm

- Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik - Than Htike, Production Manager, marine farm of KMK - Sein Thaung, Myeik Division Officer (DoF)

Next to Island of Sagyun in archipelago west of Myeik. 20km Birdseye NW of Myeik


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- Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DoF) - Nay Naig Tun, Assistant Officer (D0F) - Nay Lin Tun, Assistant Officer (DoF) Kyun Su Township

Visit DoF marine fish hatchery - Sein Thaung, Myeik Division Officer (DoF) - Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DoF) - Nay Naig Tun, Assistant Officer (DoF) - San Mywe, Township Officer (DoF Kyun Su Township - Nay Lin Tun, Assistant Officer (DoF) Kyun Su Township - Tin Ye, Hatchery technician (DoF Kuyn Su Township - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik - Than Htike, Production Manager, marine farm of KMK

Pyinhtetaw village, Kyinsu Township. NE part of Kadan Kyun Island

Visit previous site (2004) for circular cages - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik - Than Htike, Production Manager, marine farm of KMK - Sein Thaung, Myeik Division Officer (DoF) - Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DOF) - Nay Naig Tun, Assistant Officer (DoF) - Nay Lin Tun, Assistant Officer (DoF) Kyun Su Township - Local Sagyun cage farmer (knowing the site)

NW part of Padwa Aw Bay (12o37N; 98o24E), Kadan Kyun Island

Visit KMK seabass hatchery and brackish water fish cage farm - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik - Soe San, Hatchery Technician. KMK - Ming Aung, Manager of one KMK Brackish Water Farm site - Tun Win, Manager of second KMK Brackish Water Fish Farm site

Yemyitkyi, near Kyaukpya, 15km Birdseye NE of Myeik

Overnight at Eain Taw Phyu Hotel

Sunday 8/5 Description Venue: Myeik

Meeting/visit Pyi Phyo Tun Co., Ltd. (PPT) softshell crab farm (and storage of old circular HDPE cages) - Moe Kyaw Han, Farm Manager - Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DoF)

Pataw/Pateh “Islands” opposite Myeik


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- Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik Meeting Myeik MMF - Thaung Myint, Secretary - Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DoF) - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik

MMF Myeik Office building

Meeting/Visit Kaung softshell crab farm - Win Aye, General Manager - Htet Myat Aung, Assistant Myeik Township Officer (DoF) - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik

Shore of Tanintharyi River, opposite Myeik


Monday 9/5 Description Venue: Myeik Meeting/visit Well Co., Ltd live seafood

collection centre (lobster, mantis shrimp, marine fish) and another visit on the same road - Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Director - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager KMK Myeik

Myeik Town

Visit Myeik retail seafood market Myeik Town

Meeting/visit United KMK Myeik (processing plant block frozen squid and shrimp from fisheries for reprocessing, in addition to the above aquaculture activities) - U Tun Lin, General Manager - Nay Myo Zaw, Assistant General Manager

Myeik Town


Tuesday 10/5 Description Venue: Myeik/Yangon/Sittwe Transfer by air Myeik-Yangon-Sittwe

Overnight at Noble Hotel Wednesday 11/5

Description Venue: Sittwe

Meeting/Visit DoF Sittwe Marine Shrimp Demonstration center (shrimp hatchery) - Dr. Myo Min Hlaing, Deputy Director, Rakhine DoF - Than Than Aye, Hatchery technician, DoF Rakhine - Maung Maung Naing, mission liaison person for Rakhine, Field Manager, USAID Sustainable Seafood Industry Development Project

1 hr from Sittwe

Meeting DoF Rakhine State HQ - Dr. Nyunt Wai, Director - Dr. Myo Min Hlaing, Deputy Director

Sittwe


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- Maung Maung Naing, mission liaison person for Rakhine, Field Manager, USAID Sustainable Seafood Industry Development Project

Overnight at Nobel Hotel

Thursday 12/5 Description Venue: Sittwe

Visit extensive shrimp farm area at Ponnagyun Township. Visit previous Kalatan River cage farm area. Visit local DoF office in Ponnagyan town Visit newly established softshell crab farm. Visit Ohn Re Paw village with nearby mudflats potential for bivalve farming - Dr. Myo Min Hlaing, Deputy Director, Rakhine DoF - Maung Hla, Township Extension Fisheries Officer, Rakhine DoF - Maung Maung Naing, mission liaison person for Rakhine, Field Manager, USAID Sustainable Seafood Industry Development Project

Some hrs drive from Sittwe (>100km)

Meeting Rakhine Fisheries Federation (RFF) - San Kyaw Hla, Speaker of Rakhine State Parliament (Hluttaw) - Aung Naing Win, former Chairman of RFF

- An Nee Chay, RFF

- Thei Tun, Fisheries Officer, Rakhine State

DoF

- Tin Maung Htwe, Processing Plant Owner

- Thar Zan Aung, Processing Plant Owner

- Kyaw Min Oo, Processing Plant Owner

- Kywe Htwe Chay, Wholesale Dealer

- Kyaw Zan Hla, Wholesale Dealer

- Maung Maung Naing, mission liaison person for Rakhine, Field Manager, USAID Sustainable Seafood Industry Development Project

Restaurant of Noble Hotel, Sittwe

Overnight at Noble Hotel

Friday 13/5 Description Venue: Sittwe/Yangon Visit local seafood retail market Sittwe

Transfer by air Sittwe-Yangon Overnight at Royal Khattar Hotel (NSV)

Saturday 14/5 Description Venue: Yangon Meeting

- Dr Ben Belton, Assistant Professor, International Development, Michigan University, Food Security Policy Project, Yangon

Fujii Restaurant, Yangon

Meeting Yangon University


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- Dr. Kay Lwin Tun, Laboratory of Aquatic Bioscience, Dept. of Zoology, University of Yangon and Associate Professor, Dept. of Zoology, Sittwe university

Meeting - Mr Hla Win, Deputy Director, DoF, retired. Advisor to DoF and MFF

Fuji Restaurant, Yangon


Sunday 15/5 Description Venue: Yangon Dinner with Norwegian group

- Ola Nicolai Borge, Head of the Norway-Myanmar Business Council - Harald W. Mathisen, Counsellor, Nor.Emb - Htet Nyi (Kevin), Honorary consul, Royal Norwegian Consulate - Marthe Haugland, Man. Dir, Norwegian Development Group

Signature Restaurant, Yangon


Monday 16/5 Description Venue: Yangon

Debriefing meeting - Ann Ollestad, Ambassador - Einar Rystad, Deputy Chief of Mission - Harald W. Mathisen, Counsellor

Royal Norwegian Embassy

Departure NSV, evening VN Air Yangon Airport


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ANNEX 2: FOREIGN INVESTMENT POLICY AND PROCEDURES

The policy and procedures described in below ‘newsletter type’ document from the Union of

Myanmar Embassy in Belgium are still in process, but is expected to be implemented in a few

months maximum as it has a high priority to attract foreign investors who also can help developing exports.


Myanmar is striving to improve productivity, increase all round production, develop efficiency in trade

and increase its trade volume following the liberalisation of its economy and adoption of a market

oriented economic system since late 1988. Activities to induce direct foreign investment are being

continued. Myanmar's policy on foreign investment is an important component of the overall

restructuring and development policy of the government.

The main components of the policy are:

a. adoption of a market oriented system for the allocation of resources.

b. encouragement of private investment and entrepreneurial activity.

c. opening of the economy for foreign trade and investment.

Policy objectives underlying foreign investment are for the promotion and expansion of exports.

exploitation of natural resources which requires heavy investment, acquisition of high technology,

supporting and assisting capital intensive production and services, opening up of more employment

opportunities, development of energy conserving activities and regional development. The Foreign

Investment Law in which a wide spectrum of incentives is provided has been enacted and Procedures relating to the Law have also been prescribed.

Foreign investors are allowed to make investment either in the form of a hundred percent wholly

foreign-owned enterprise, or partly-owned, or in the form of a joint venture with a private or public

local entity. If it is a partly-owned concern or a joint-venture, the minimum foreign capital shall be 35 per cent of the total equity capital.

A foreign investor who invests and operates under the Foreign Investment Law has the right to enjoy

appropriate economic benefits particularly in the form of tax incentives, as well as to repatriate profits

and to withdraw the legitimate assets on winding up his business. There is also an unequivocal State guarantee against nationalisation and expropriation.

Eligible Economic Activities

Economic activities allowed under the Foreign Investment Law and notified by the Foreign Investment

Commission cover almost all sectors of the economy. Activities not specified in the notification will be

considered upon request. Previously, there were twelve economic activities defined in section 3 of the

State-owned Economic Enterprises Law in which private investment was restricted and were reserved

to be carried out solely by the State-owned Economic Enterprises. However, relaxation has now been made by the government for private investors to invest in these activities.

Types of Business Organizations

In accordance with section 5 of the Foreign Investment Law, a foreign investor can organise his activity in Myanmar in the following manner:-



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1. Wholly-owned by the foreign investor

An individual foreign investor can establish his business as a sole proprietorship by bringing in

one hundred per cent foreign capital. Similarly, a partnership firm or a limited company which

is incorporated outside Myanmar can do business as a foreign branch by bringing in the total

capital required by such a branch. Establishing a business in which citizens have interests

2. A foreign investor can enter into a partnership with his local counterpart or set up a limited

liability company with shares held by local investors. He can also join with any individual,

firm, company, co-operative or State-owned enterprise from Myanmar to establish a joint-

venture either as a partnership firm or a limited company. In all such cases the foreign capital to be brought in must be at a minimum 35 per cent of the total equity capital.

Foreign Investment Application Procedure Submitting a Proposal

A promoter must submit a proposal in the prescribed form to the Foreign Investment Commission enclosing the following documents:-

1. Documents in support of the investor's financial credibility (audited final accounts of a most

recent year of the person or firm intending to make investment). 2. Bank recommendation regarding the business standing. 3. Detailed calculation relating to economic justification of the proposed project indicating inter

alia estimated annual net profit; estimated annual foreign exchange earnings or savings as

well as foreign exchange requirement for the operation, recoupment period; prospects of new

employment; prospects of increased national income; local and foreign market conditions and

distribution. 4. If it is a hundred per cent foreign investment, a draft contract to be executed with the

organisation determined by the Ministry concerned. 5. If it is a firm, limited company or joint venture of any kind, a draft contract to be entered into

between the foreign investor and local counterpart. 6. If it is a limited company or a joint-venture in the form of a limited company, draft

Memorandum and Articles of Association. 7. Lease Agreement for lease of land or building to be entered into between the lessor and the

lessee.

Appraisal of the Proposal

The Office of the Foreign Investment Commission makes a preliminary appraisal of the proposal. The

proposal is then forwarded together with the views and comments to the Foreign Investment

Commission. The Commission will scrutinise the proposal from the technical, financial, commercial,

economic and social aspects within the frame work of the policy objectives. Upon approval by the

Commission, a permit is issued to carry out business specifying the terms and conditions as required according to the type of business.

Application for a Permit to Trade from the Ministry of National Planning and Economic

Development at the time of incorporation of the enterprise with the Registrar of Companies.

Basically any enterprise which has obtained a permit from the Commission can start its business

constituting itself as a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a limited company or a branch office of a

foreign company. A limited company which brings one hundred per cent foreign capital. a joint-

venture limited company or a branch company is deemed as a foreign company under section 27 A of

the Myanmar Companies Act, and accordingly it is required to obtain a Permit to Trade by applying to

the Registrar of the Companies Registration Office of the Directorate of lnvestment and Company


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Administration of the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. However, a limited

company which is a joint-venture with a State-owned Economic Enterprise formed under Special Company Act 1950 is exempted from obtaining a Permit to Trade.

The application is to be accompanied by the following documents:-

1. Required particulars entered in Form A of the Myanmar Companies Regulation, 1957. 2. The Company's drafts Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association or other

instruments defining the constitution of the company. 3. Duly completed questionnaire form prescribed by the Capital Structure Committee of the

Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. 4. List of economic activities intended to be performed in Myanmar. (A permission from the

relevant Ministry if any). 5. Estimated expenditures to be incurred in Myanmar for the first year operations.

In the case of a foreign branch the following shall be furnished in addition to the above mentioned documents:-

1. Instead of the company's drafts Memorandum and Articles of Association, a copy of the Head

office's Memorandum and Articles of Association or of the Charter, Statute or other

instruments constituting or defining the constitution of the company, duly notarised and

conservatised by the Myanmar Embassy concerned in the country where the company is

incorporated. 2. Copies of the head office balance sheet and profit and loss accounts for the last two financial

years. 3. Where the Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association and other relevant documents

are not in English in the original, authentication of the translation into English.

The Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development will issue the Permit to Trade after

considering the recommendation of the Capital Structure Committee. In the case of a company which

has been issued a Permit from the Foreign Investment Commission, the terms and validity of the

Permit to Trade shall be the same.

Registration of Business Organizations

1. A sole proprietorship is not required to register at the Companies Registration Office. 2. A partnership firm may be registered, but registration is not compulsory. 3. A company limited by shares is required to register under the Myanmar Companies Act at the

Office of Registrar of Companies Registration. 4. A company with share contribution of the State shall be registered under the Special

Company Act. 1950 and the Myanmar Companies Act. as a Special Company. 5. A company which comes under the definition of foreign company shall apply and obtain a

permit from the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development before registration.

In applying for registration of a company or branch office of a foreign company, the following papers

and documents shall be submitted.

1. Two sets of Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association duly stamped and printed

both in Myanmar and English 2. Declaration of registration 3. Declaration of legal and official version of the documents 4. Declaration of the situation of registered office 5. Translation certificate by a competent translator


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6. List of Directors and Managers for a Company incorporated in Myanmar 7. List of person(s) authorised to accept services of process and notice in Myanmar on behalf of

the Company (for a branch office of a foreign company)

For a Public Company the following additional documents shall be submitted before commencing the business

1. List of persons to act as Directors. 2. List of persons who have consented to act as Directors. 3. Agreement to take qualification shares.

Registration Fees

1. For a Partnership firm the registration fee is fixed at Kyats 45/- . 2. For a Company Limited by shares the registration fee ranges from a minimum of Kyats 600/-

to a maximum of Kyats 15,000/- depending upon the authorised capital of the Company (It is calculated according to Table "B" of the Myanmar Companies Act.)

Investment Climate

Myanmar is rich in natural resources. It has vast forests, numerous river systems with broad deltas,

rolling mountain ranges, cultivable plains and highlands on geographical surfaces supplemented with

rich underground resources of known minerals, renowned gems and many other minerals which have

not yet been exploited commercially. It is a very attractive country for investors. Furthermore, its long

historical lineage and rich cultural background makes it is a country worth visiting, a country with

great potential for tourism. Myanmar has a tolerable climate that is absent of extremities and it is not

prone to natural disasters. It has a moderate sized population of about 42 million with a high literacy

rate. With a total land area of 676,577 square kilometres (261,228 sq. miles) it is the largest country

on the mainland of South East Asia.

Myanmar has a long coastline with rich fishing grounds but they have been exploited very limitedly;

the offshore fishing grounds are the least exploited. Hence vast potential still exists for investment in

this area. As a form of liberalisation in fishery sector, fishing rights have been granted to foreign

companies on contractual basis in specified areas within the exclusive economic zone of Myanmar

territorial waters. Various laws and procedures relating to fishing rights, marine fisheries, aquaculture

and fresh water fisheries have been enacted in the 90's so as to allow wider fishing rights to private individuals both local and foreign and also to form joint ventures.

The establishment of internationally competitive export industries is required for the purpose of

promoting industrialisation. The textile, food and timber processing industries are expected to be

promising ones, as well as other more value added ones that will enable to production and promotion of exportable commodities.

Since the promulgation of the Foreign Investment Law in November 1988, the Government of

Myanmar has taken measures to encourage foreign investment and up to December 1993, the

Commission has permitted 68 enterprises to invest in the agriculture, manufacturing, energy, mining,

fishery, tourism and transport sectors.

_________________________________________________________________ Pr epar ed by THA N TUN WIN, Embassy of the Union of My anmar, Brussels


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ANNEX 3: LIST OF NORWEGIAN COMPANIES SHOWN A REGIONAL INTEREST

There are a number of Norwegian companies, which have shown interest in the SE Asian region

within most of the value chain segments. However the majority have mainly spent efforts in markets screening for selling their products. Very few have invested in production or services in the region.

In the region the following have invested related to aquaculture:

Vitamar (Bjoern Myrseth) farming in Cambodia

Marine Farms (earlier Bjoern Myrseth) farming in Vietnam

Genomar farming of tilapia in a JV Trapia in Malaysia

Gaia (Tom Preststulen) farming of sea urchin and abalone in Philippines

Cargill/Ewos aquafeed mill in Vietnam

Tom Boy (Skretting) aquafeed mill in Vietnam and Indonesia

Steinsvik advanced equipment producer in Vietnam

Pharmaq service and sales in Vietnam

Different companies have assessed the region for shorter or longer periods possibly in connection

with market screening: AkvaGroup, Smartfarm, OxyVison, AqVisor, AFGC (tilapia) among several others.

Earlier Norwegian Frode Teigen invested strongly in different value chain segments in marine fish

farming in the region; especially known was the investment in the Australian Cleanseas Tuna, but

nowadays he concentrates on Norway.

If looking for possible involvement in e.g. development of the seaweed farming, Statoil should be

consulted, as they are involved in seaweed farming development in Norway, and also they were

looking into aquaculture support as a CSR activity in Indonesia. Another company, which could be

contacted, is FMC Norway, which is part of a multinational group, which has been strongly involved in development of tropical seaweed farming.


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ANNEX 4: TERMS OF REFERENCE

A Study of Market Opportunities for Potential Investors in Aquaculture

Production - Technology and Services in the Rakhine and Tanintharyi Regions of Myanmar.

Background Possible cooperation within the fisheries sector between the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Kingdom of Norway has been discussed on several occasions between the Norwegian Ambassador to Myanmar and the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development, and an interest in such cooperation has been shown from both sides.

At the request of the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development a team was put together to analyze the situation in the sector and propose possible areas for cooperation in developing the fisheries sector in Myanmar. The team delivered a scoping mission report to the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development and the Norwegian Embassy in Yangon in April 2015.

As a follow up to this scoping study the Ministry, together with the Norwegian Embassy is currently working on the preparations for terms of reference for a team to assist the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Rural Development in drafting a project proposal for cooperation between Myanmar and Norway in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

This development clearly demonstrates the commitment of Myanmar to promotion of fisheries and aquaculture development. It is also an indication of the interest for bilateral cooperation from Norway in this particular industry.

The perspective of the scoping study was rather broad, covering both fisheries and aquaculture and focusing much on the regulatory framework. The report also provided a relatively long list of follow up measures to advance development in the two sectors. One of the follow-up activities will to develop the project document for long term cooperation between Myanmar and Norway mentioned above, which is also broad in scope, but has an emphasis on public sector development, capacity building and training within fisheries and aquaculture management.

So far however, there seems to have been relatively limited focus specifically on aquaculture - and on private sector development in the two sub-sectors. Capacity building and development of a conducive regulatory framework will definitely be an important prerequisite for sustainable development of the aquaculture sector, but so will also productive private sector investment. There is a century long and broad experience with aquaculture in Myanmar and the rest of South- East Asia which needs to be recognized and respected. Yet intensive aquaculture rests on a multitude of scientific knowledge in such fields as nutrition, veterinary science, breeding, logistics, production economy etc. and the integration of this knowledge into highly efficient value chains. These value chains can be very productive, competitive and profitable. If Myanmar could acquire this kind of know-how and technology, possibly also apply and integrate it in existing lines of aquaculture this could pave the way for modernization of this important sector of the economy. Investment is key to such development, either by local companies, foreign companies or by joint ventures. Hence investment in the sector is desirable, yet even more desirable is investment of competent capital who can provide cutting edge competence combined with capital.

In order to attract this kind of investment, from both national as well as international investors there is a need for a better understanding of the sector specific investment climate in the forms of marked opportunities and constraints, major players, relevant infrastructure etc. Investment


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climate in general would of course be interesting for a potential investor, yet even more interesting would be specific information on investment opportunities related to particular regions, promising cultures/value chains, potential co-investors and funding schemes to mention a few examples. Information along these lines would be valuable for potential investors – it could attract the interest of investors, and lower the threshold for investments in the sector. An added benefit could be that such kind of information would also be useful for public service management of the aquaculture industry, as it would provide a better understanding of the motives and interest of private sector players driving economic development in aquaculture.

Overall objective

The overall objective of this study is to provide an overview of opportunities and challenges for investments in the aquaculture sector of Myanmar. As far as possible, the study should identify specific investment opportunities – particularly in aquaculture production, but also in the supplier industry. The focus of the study will be industrial aquaculture, with up-to date technology, yet with sensitivity to local conditions and the need to adapt state of the art production technology to local conditions. Focus will further be on opportunities to invest in coastal aquaculture and cultures that would allow for reasonable control of the value chain, particularly the supply of seed and the start feed technology underpinning a stable seed supply. The study should also focus on, and discuss to what degree, and in which areas, Norwegian aquaculture experience, methodology and technology would be relevant to the development of Myanmar aquaculture.

Such a study will be used to communicate and attract the interest of foreign investors to the aquaculture sector in Myanmar. It will also provide domestic investors and companies with an updated assessment of the marked opportunities, national authorities with a better understanding of what it will take to attract investment in the sector, and a better understanding of the financial possibilities and risks involved for financing institutions like international donor, investment banks and private lending institutions.

Scope

The geographic scope of this study is primarily limited to Myanmar and in particular two of the most

relevant aquaculture producing areas; the Rakhine region at the Bay of Bengal bordering Bangladesh

in the northeast, and the Tanintharyi region at the Andaman sea and bordering Thailand in the

south. However, taking into account the cross border character of the aquaculture sector it is also

expected that the study will apply a regional perspective when this is relevant. This cross border

perspective shall apply not only to export of aquaculture products, but also to such issues as the

presence and expansion plan of aquaculture companies in the region, upstream and downstream

opportunities, and the opportunities to develop relationship with regional institutions and

organizations etc.

In order to develop a sustainable, efficient and profitable aquaculture based industry, Myanmar

need to modernize their industry and address the whole value chain from harvesting/culture to the

market. This study will focus on the potential to increase aquaculture productivity and develop

modern, effective and sustainable aquaculture value chains adjusted to the context of Myanmar and its long traditions and experience with aquaculture.

The study will be organized as follows:

1) The aquaculture sector of the two regions in Myanmar: The physical environment and most important production areas for sea-water

aquaculture such as wind speed/typhoon exposure, yearly water temperature


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fluctuations and other important water quality parameters if available. Identify the most

important natural competitive advantages for aquaculture based seafood production in

the two project areas.

Description and analysis of the domestic market for seafood including5:

o Developments, trends and conditions in the market including competition from

aquaculture production in other regions in Myanmar.

o Main products and their markets, prices, the infrastructure, and industry

structure, ownership, main trends, logistic, etc.

o The economic status of the national seafood sector – its ability to

buy/invest in cooperation/ implementation of new solutions

o The general cost level and taxation for this industry, and other incentives/obstacles of relevance

o The framework for foreign investments in the aqua farming value chain.

Description and analysis of the major value chains

Production data/statistics per culture/region if available

o Volume production of different fish species (tons / year) and head of fish. ( the

combination giving the fish's slaughter weight)

o Value of the farmed fish per kg (indicating if the market is willing and able

to pay for vaccines and vaccination process.

Seafood-producers: The most important and/or commercially interesting cultures in

Myanmar and in the two regions (shrimp, fish (for domestic consumption, regional

consumption, and overseas export), and seaweed.

Identify the most promising cultures with regard to the overall objectives of the study

(ref above). Describe value chains from seed to marked for each of these chains and

provide a list of most significant producers.

Provide as far as possible an assessment of the veterinary and environmental status of

the water bodies in the production areas with regard to the most important

aquacultures (including relevant management institutions and their capacity)

o Major pathogens (Latin names on bacteria and English names on virus) and

when are they causing problems in the fish's life cycle (size and weight of

fish when inflicted)?

o Mortality rates of the different pathogens?

o Seasonality of diseases? Or in conjunction with other tasks (sorting, handling etc.) ?

o What treatments are used today?

Indicate the availability of skilled labor and professionals

Discuss potential for industrialization based on an analysis of main constraints with

emphasis on seed supply(larvae, fry and fingerlings), fish feed (start/on growing,

live feed, artificial feed) but also with regard to disease control, and

sanitary/veterinary condition with regard to processing, infrastructure (el-supply)

communication, level of competence)

Discuss the potential to achieve bigger value creation by deploying new fish species in the

5 Ref «Myanmar seafood export – Quick scan of the EU market potential» CBI Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the

Netherlands 2012. This point in the TOR should be based on a review and update of this report.


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area.

Suppliers: equipment/technology, fish feed, vaccines, drugs and veterinary services. Top ten list of suppliers.

Key actors

o Relevant local and foreign companies with particular emphasis on companies

established in neighbour countries and Norway

o Relevant NGO’s – national/regional

o Identify regional representatives of producers organizations (The Myanmar

Fisheries Federation (MFF) and its sector organizations (Shrimp association, Fish

farmers Association, Fishery Products Processors and Exporters Associations

etc. – names to be provided) and discuss potential for capacity building,

partnership and potential to drive development of regulatory framework

conditions

o Identify relevant regional governmental institutions and their role and

capacity in reviewing and allocating space, water etc. as well as granting

of licenses, particular with regard to regional representatives of Ministry

of Livestock and Fisheries.

o Downstream actors in marketing, export etc. of relevance A brief description of major sustainability issues (fish health and environment)

concerning present situation and future development of the aquaculture industry in

the project area (ref bullet point 2 above). Highlight environmental opportunities that

might be realized if such issues are taken into account at an early stage. The main and

relevant CSR issues for the aqua farming and processing industries should also be

considered

Describe briefly, and with reference to other key documents policies, political goals

and recent governmental initiatives relevant to promotion of aquaculture and the

impacts in the project areas.

Describe regulations creating the framework for the aquaculture based seafood

sector enhancing sustainable development

2) Myanmar aquaculture in a regional context

The objective of this part of the study is to put the potential for aquaculture development in

Myanmar into a regional context by highlighting present and potential links to the regional economy. This part of the study should hence consider:

The present and future market for seafood in the region in terms of price, volume and

quantity – identification of main national and local growth markets

Production and competition in the region for seafood products – major producers and competitors and likely development in terms of species and production technology

Technical and non-technical regulative barriers to trade in the region

Trade infrastructure – communication and logistics

Major investors in the aquaculture sectors who could be motivated for investment

and partnership in seafood production, aquaculture technology development and

production, and provision of aquaculture services in Myanmar, and the project area


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in particular.

Regional institutions and organization in the field of aquaculture development

which could be engaged or consulted in connection with aquaculture capacity

building/technical advice

Organization and responsibilities The owners of this project are NORAD and the Norwegian Embassy in Yangon. The project leader for

the two owners Senior Advisor Andreas Stokseth of NORAD who will be responsible for the follow up

of the project, including organizing meetings with the reference group, publication of the final report and communication.

A selection of Norwegian and Myanmar companies with a record from aquaculture and/or

international operation will be requested to indicate their interest in the aquaculture sector of

Myanmar, and provide comments and suggestion on the drafts of the report for this study. The

Office for Private Sector Development in Developing Countries will also be requested to provide

their comments, and will assist in the communication of project findings to relevant companies in

Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Yangon will make the report available to local companies and government institutions who might be interested.

An external, aquaculture expert, familiar with aquaculture development in South-East Asia will be

engaged by Norad to be responsible for conducting the study. In addition a local expert familiar with

aquaculture in Myanmar shall be hired by the external expert to contribute to the study. The two

consultants will work closely with the owners in Oslo and Yangon during fieldwork, and/or report writing.

Deliverables and milestones for the project (tentative)

Tender process initiated – 09.02.2016

Signing of the contract 22.03.2016

Inception report, including preliminary report outline 05.04.2016

Comments to the inception report: 12.04.2016

Delivery of draft report – 17.05.2016

Comments to the draft report – 30.05.2016

Delivery of the final report – 30.06.2016


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ANNEX 5: REFERENCE LIST

Aquaculture in Transition: Value Chain Transformation, Fish and Food Security in Myanmar. International Development Working paper 139. December 2015. Prepared for USAID/Burma et.al. by Michigan State University et.al.

Business Plan for RIA-1’s Demonstration Marine Fish Cage Farm of Norwegian co-financed SRV-

11/0027 Project, Update (2) 2015 download from

http://www.aquaforum.vn/News.aspx?ctl=newsdetail&aID=196&p=130&LangID=2

Progress report 2014: Development of Aquaculture and Governance for a Sustainable Utilization of Thai Sea waters 2010-2014 by Department of Fisheries, Thailand

Cage aquaculture. Regional reviews and global overview. 2007. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 498

Capacity building for sustainable aquaculture and fisheries development in Myanmar. IMARES Wageningen UR 2015

FAO: Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission, Thirty-fourth Session, Sri Lanka: Aquaculture trends in the Asia-Pacific region (2016 –draft)

FAO National Aquaculture Legislation Overview, Myanmar (downloaded from

http://www.fao.org/fishery/legalframework/nalo_myanmar/en)

FAO FishStatJ 2016

Fisheries mission to Myanmar 14 -17 March 2016, Back-to-office report, Norad

MYANMAR FISHERY STATISTICS 2015, Department of Fisheries, Myanmar

Institutional support to fishery sectors in Myanmar, NAG, Concept Note, Italy, 2014

Myanmar Aquaculture and Inland Fisheries. RAP publication 2003/18. FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Myanmar Fisheries, Actors Mapping v3. No author (Excel sheets)

Myanmar International Business 2015, International Business Project, Innovation Norway

Myanmar: Making connections and maximising opportunity in aquaculture. AwF Mission report, Dr

Jennifer Cobcroft, 2014

Myanmar – Norway Possibilities for Cooperation within the Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector. April 12th 2015

Myanmar Seafood Exports. Quick Scan of the EU Market Potential. Compiled for CBI by LEI

Wageningen UR, December 2012

National Aquaculture Legislation Overview, Myanmar. NALO fact sheet. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. No date

OECD Investment Policy Reviews: Myanmar 2014

http://www.fao.org/fishery/legalframework/nalo_myanmar/en


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Progress report 2014 for the project: Development of Aquaculture and Governance for a Sustainable Utilization of Thai Sea waters

Study Visit to Fisheries Industry in Myeik. Myanmar. Innovation Norway Oct. 26 th 2015

The State of World, Fisheries and Aquaculture, FAO 2014

http://consult-myanmar.com/2016/03/18/vietnamese-company-to-build-animal-feed-processing-plant-

in-yangon/ ref Myitmakha News Agency)





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