Struggle to buy food amid Myanmar price hikes after coup
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Bags of rice distributed by the World Food Programme being transported as part of food aid efforts to support residents living in poor communities on the outskirts of Yangon. The programme estimates that within the next six months, as many as 3.4 million more people will go hungry in Myanmar.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
YANGON • Ms Aye Mar sits with her seven children in their Yangon kitchen and worries whether their meal of rice and stringy vegetables - all she can afford in coup-stricken Myanmar - will satisfy their hunger.
The national economy and banking system have been paralysed since a military power grab, which pushed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi out of office in February.
Livelihoods have been lost after strikes and factory closures, fuel prices have shot up and those lucky enough to have bank savings face day-long queues to withdraw their cash.
Venturing out in public to earn a living has also become a safety hazard against the backdrop of an indiscriminate and brutal crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 800 civilians, according to a local monitoring group.
In a country which in normal times exports rice, beans and fruit, millions will go hungry in the coming months, the World Food Programme has warned.
"We have to feed our children so they don't starve," said Ms Aye Mar, sitting barefoot in the commercial capital, a baby swinging in a hammock overhead.
The 33-year-old is out of work, along with her husband who has been forced to take any odd job on offer, including digging septic tanks.
Food vendor Wah Wah, 37, said the price increases since the coup mean that customers can no longer afford something as modest as a bowl of dried fish. "I can't sell it because customers cannot afford to buy it... even if I sell it at 500 kyats (40 Singapore cents) a bowl," she said.
"Everyone has to spend money carefully to be safe because no one has jobs. We live in fear because we don't know what will happen."
Father of three Win Naing Tun, 26, said those who could previously afford to eat pork regularly have been forced to turn to fish paste and vegetables. And those who survived on that limited diet before "now can afford to eat only white rice with salt", he said.
Price hikes have hit remote areas particularly hard.
Near the Chinese border in Kachin state, rice is almost 50 per cent more expensive, according to the World Food Programme.
The cost of transporting produce from farms to cities has also jumped after an estimated 30 per cent fuel price hike since the coup.
The World Food Programme estimates that within the next six months, as many as 3.4 million more people will go hungry in Myanmar, and it is poised to treble its emergency food assistance.
Mr Aung Kyaw Moe, 47, is considering returning to his home village after the Yangon factory he worked in shut down.
He had no money saved up, he said, and was in despair over how to support his family of nine, who are squatting illegally with him in the commercial capital. "Everything is outside our control," he said.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
