Phyo/ Htike San (NP News) - Nov 10
A footwear entrepreneur told The Statesman journal that while domestically produced footwear is being exported to Thailand, some shipments have had to turn back due to security concerns along the route.
Currently, hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers are going to work in Thailand, and it is reported that locally produced footwear is being exported to cater to these Myanmar workers in Thailand.
“There are many Myanmar workers in Thailand. Footwear sells there, and since these workers have families—including children—there’s a market for all of them to wear these products. Right now, there are no viable routes for shipping. For instance, if one were to try sending goods to Thailand, the available routes are not suitable; travel is unsafe due to security concerns,” he said.
He stated that, in the past few days, three trucks carrying footwear destined for Thailand had to turn back because they could not proceed due to the security situation along the route.
“The shoe headquarters sent three trucks carrying locally made shoes to Dawei for sale. They then used to send the shoes from Dawei to Thailand. However, there was fighting there, so they turned back. There were Myanmar workers in Thailand who were responsible for delivering the shoes to customers. However, when they went to make the deliveries, fighting broke out beyond Mawlamyine. Officials said they could not proceed, so all three trucks had to turn back. This happened not long ago. Traveling is no longer safe, and trade has also been severely affected, causing difficulties like these. There are millions of Myanmar people living there,” he said.
It is understood that the shipment is currently suspended and will only be resumed when the security situation on the route improves.
"We need to investigate when we can resume it. We will send them back when the road is clear. The situation keeps changing from one day to the next," he said.
He said that shoe manufacturers are currently experiencing a low production level due to various reasons.
“Right now, our domestic shoe production has declined slightly for various reasons. The Yangon Region government is encouraging 122 entrepreneurs in our shoe industry. I think that in December, if we have a place where we can produce shoes collectively, we will go to Bangladesh ourselves. We will consider exporting them by ship. That is what we need to present,” he said. –
