Thai traders are flocking to Burma to buy up cheap rice with the aim of selling it to a Thai government rice-buying scheme that is supposed to support Thai farmers, the Myanmar Rice Merchants Federation says. "For a long time, Thailand did not buy any rice from Myanmar… But at the beginning of this year, Thai traders started to buy normal rice and broken rice [grains] from Myanmar and transport it across the border," said Ye Min Aung, the federation's secretary.