Myanmar has closed the Singkhon Thai-Myanmar border checkpoint, pausing imports and exports that cause damage over hundreds of thousand baht per day.
According to the violence in Myanmar on April 25, 2022, the Myanmar authorities ordered the closure of the Singkhon Thai-Myanmar border checkpoint. As a result, import-export freight operators, a special relief point at Singkhon checkpoint, Moo 6, Khlong Wan Subdistrict, Mueang Prachuap Khiri Khan District are suffering because the seafood and agricultural goods coming from Myeik Province of Myanmar about 180 kilometers from the Thai border cannot pass through the border, causing leftovers and spoilage of fisheries and agricultural products due to being unable to deliver within the specified time period.
An initial survey of the damage to more than 10 cargo operators at the Singkhon border found that the Myanmar authorities had ordered the checkpoint to be closed on Sunday. The products ordered and packaged from Myeik are seafood such as cockles, crabs, fish, frozen squid, bananas, onions, shallots, and palm pulps. Each day a loss of economic value is not less than 100,000 baht per day; could be up to 5 hundred thousand, depending on the type of goods and the amount of transportation.
Mr. Wichaphon Phanrat, an entrepreneur of Nanyawee Rungruangpanich Partnership, revealed that the closure of the checkpoints makes operators unable to prepare goods in time. Before the closing of the checkpoints, the company had an order for shrimp worth 1 million baht to be sent to a shrimp farm in Myanmar. The company is requesting the Thai government to coordinate with the Myanmar authorities to waive the goods to be transported.
According to Mr. Thanon Thamrapeephas, Prachuap Khiri Khan District Chief, the conditions for opening the checkpoint depend on the military on the Burmese side. However, the Thai government is now in process of negotiation with the related parties of Myanmar.
