The Forest Department under the Military Council said that Myanmar exported over 4,800 tons of teak in the first half of this year.
“Myanmar teak was exported mainly to India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China in the first half of this year,” the Forest Department said.
Myanmar teak was exported in over 480 containers and the country earned nearly US$14 million in the first half of this year from these exports.
According to the data released by the Forest Department, the Myanmar timber was exported to 41 companies dealing with 52 countries during the first half of this year of which over 2,610 tons of teak was exported to 41 companies from 20 countries during the 4-month period from April to July this year.
The report issued by US-based Forest Trends says that the EU, UK, US, Switzerland and Canada imported forest products from Myanmar worth US$90.5 million, although they have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar.
China stands as the largest importer of Myanmar timber with imports worth nearly US$280 million, followed by India with US$96 million, Thailand with over US$37 million, Japan with US$4.5 million, Singapore with US$10.3 million and Australia with about US$3.5 million respectively.
Forest Trends issued a statement in March 2022 which says that despite the western countries imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar, Myanma Timber Enterprise (MTE) continued the timber and forest products export to these countries and it received US$37 million from these exports.
Forest Trends said that MTE received US$190 million from timber exports to foreign countries during the period from February to November 2021, despite being on a sanctions list. About US$22 million income came for EU countries.
Myanmar exported timber to foreign countries during two years since coup in early 2021 and the country earned over US$500 million from these exports of which 17 per cent of them were exported to the countries which imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar, Forest Trends said.
Though the MTE was listed in the economic sanctions the export and trading of timber and forest products is still continuing and timber prices rose by 30 per cent after the sanctions.
The report issued by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says that Myanmar exported 2,500 tons of teak during the two years since the military coup.
