Dip in Myanmar jade exports blamed on rebel clashes

Earnings from jade exports from the start of April 2014 to the end of February this year were $1.003 billion compared to $1.17 billion over the corresponding period last year, the Ministry of Commerce said.
“This is because of the fighting in Kachin state that affects jade mining, and also because of the plunging currency exchange rate this year,” said Tun Hla Aung, joint secretary of Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association.
Jade is mainly exported to China, Hong Kong and India and there are also sales of jade jewellery through gem emporiums in foreign countries, he said.
Myanmar produces the vast majority of the world’s jade. Most is sourced from Hpakant, 350 kilometres north of Mandalay, in the conflict-torn mountains of Kachin State. Competing claims over the jade mines have helped fuel a war between the military and the Kachin Independence Army since 2011.
After fighting broke out in 2011, the government suspended large-scale mining in the area, cutting earnings from jade mining to $34 million in fiscal year 2011-2012, according to the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development. Most jade is sold unregulated and smuggled into China, according to researchers.
 A report by the Ash Center at Harvard University in the United States in July 2013 put the value sales of Myanmar jade as high as $8 billion in 2011. Myanmar exported more than $1.23 billion worth of jade in 2013-2014, according to the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.