By Bywar Oo / MPA
YANGON, Myanmar — Military junta authorities in Yangon have systematically barred tenants and renters from purchasing subsidized palm oil, exacerbating severe household distress and paralyzing small-scale food enterprises across the commercial capital.
Local ward administration offices, which previously issued quota books to tenants using temporary residence permits or guest registries to receive palm oil rations twice monthly, have abruptly altered access protocols. Authorities now restrict official distribution strictly to primary household registration holders.
“Under the previous system, we could collect one viss [1.6 kg] of palm oil twice a month using our temporary residence registration,” a 50-year-old female tenant in Yangon told MPA. “Starting this month, they completely barred renters. When we inquired, officials claimed supplies were insufficient. Now we are forced to purchase oil at exorbitant market rates just to cook basic daily meals.”
The domestic shortfall follows direct policy instructions issued by Nyo Saw, a senior regime official, ordering sharp reductions in foreign exchange allocations for bulk palm oil imports.
Commercial distributors confirmed that Yangon Region’s monthly palm oil import quota was slashed dramatically from over 14,000 metric tons to approximately 6,000 metric tons.
Simultaneously, the Yangon Region Palm Oil Home Delivery Committee suspended its mobile door-to-door distribution services effective 1 July 2026, completely cutting off small food vendors who relied on the program.
“Normally, we could order around 4.5 kilograms once a month at a fair rate of around 20,000 MMK,” a small-scale food vendor explained. “Now that program is completely dead, and ward-level distribution has dwindled to less than a kilogram. Small businesses have no choice but to rely heavily on the black market.”
The supply squeeze has driven black-market palm oil prices to between 18,000 MMK and 20,000 MMK per viss, with vendors reporting that stock remains acutely scarce even at inflated rates.
The surge in palm oil prices has triggered a domino effect, driving up the costs of peanut, sesame, and sunflower oils, deeply impacting street food stalls, tea shops, and small restaurants.
“In the black market, we are paying up to 20,000 MMK per viss, and even then, we cannot buy in the quantities required to run a business,” Daw Cho, a restaurant owner in Sanchaung Township, told MPA.
Economic monitors observe that the junta’s erratic import restrictions and discriminatory rationing policies continue to disproportionately punish low-income renters and informal sector workers, accelerating urban poverty across Central Myanmar.
