The erratic issuance of rice export quotas18 creates uncertainty, thereby adding a risk premium and undermining Myanmar’s reliability as a rice supplier. This lowers export prices as compared to other exporters, even for rice of the same quality (HKS, 2010). The stock requirements set at 10 000 tonnes of stored rice (in addition to rice to be exported) have been lowered to 5 000 tonnes, but it means that traders still need over USD 1 million in inventory at present prices (HKS, 2009).