This blog post presents highlights of the results from nine rounds of a telephone survey with food vendors conducted in rural and urban zones throughout Myanmar and focuses on the results from the latest round completed in September 2021. The purpose of the survey is to provide data and insights to interested stakeholders in order that they better understand the effects of shocks related to COVID-19 and the ongoing political crisis on Myanmar’s food markets. In particular, researchers from the Myanmar Agriculture Policy Support Activity (MAPSA) explored COVID-19 prevention measures, changes in shopping behavior, difficulties in food vendor operations due to the COVID-19 and political crises, changes in availability and prices of foods, and perceived changes in consumption.
You can view the full research note in English here.
Changes in food availability and purchases
Major food security concerns among Myanmar households include adverse changes in the availability and prices of products, possibly linked to more limited mobility in the country due to COVID-19 measures and the political crisis. We therefore asked food vendors for their perceptions of changes in the availability of different food products compared to similar periods in previous years.
In the September 2021 survey round, there were no major issues with the availability of food products in most markets. Most vendors reported that availability of food products in their village or township was the same as normal (the following figure). However, there is variation by food group. For onions, 11 percent of vendors reported even greater availability now compared to the same period in a typical year. This suggests that food supply systems have generally been resilient in the current crises.
Availability of food products in July 2021 compared to normal periods, percentage of food vendors reporting, by food type
Changes in prices and price inflation
While availability may not have significantly changed, changes in prices may indicate other signs of stress in the food marketing system. In a similar manner as for the availability questions, we asked food vendors to compare prices at the time of the survey to similar periods in a normal year. Overall, a large share of food vendors report increases in the retail prices of most foods, with the largest share indicating increases for cooking oils, pulses and potatoes.
Most retail food prices increased compared to 12 months ago
This blog post highlights one of the many recent surveys and research notes that MAPSA has conducted to assess the emerging constraints that key agricultural actors face and to mitigate the possible impacts of COVID-19 and recent disruptions on rural livelihoods and food security. Additional blog posts are available highlighting MAPSA’s research on the impact of disruptions on key actors in Myanmar’s agri-food system. Surveys are ongoing, and findings and recommendations will be periodically updated.
