Yangon, Mar 24 (IANS): Myanmar targets to expand the sunflower plantations up to 4 million acres across the country to cover domestic oil consumption, Ye Tint Tun, Director General of the Department of Agriculture, told the media .

Sunflower oil is one of the major cooking oil in the domestic market. Major cooking oil come from groundnuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds in Myanmar. Though the department targeted to plant 1.5 million acres of sunflower plantations, only 1.08 million acres were planted in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, according to the official.

"We already planted 1.08 million acres of sunflowers trees across the country last monsoon and winter seasons, we're targeting to expand more sunflower plantations up to 4 million acres gradually," the official said on Thursday.

The government agency planted sunflower trees mostly in Mandalay, Magway, Sagaing and Ayeyarwaddy region, and Shan state, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Domestic oil prices are good in the market this year, so we hope that farmers will be interested to plant more sunflower trees in the coming fiscal year," Ye Tint Tun added.

Myanmar cultivates more than eight million acres of edible oil crops per year while oil mills produce around 300,000 tons of edible oil per year, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar last year.