Myanmar: Myanmar’s Growing—and Dangerous—Jade Trade

Mar 25, 2014 | Christina Larson, Business Week
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In the final three quarters of 2013, export earnings from Myanmar’s jade trade reached $920 million—up more than a third from a year earlier—according to newly released figures from the country’s Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development.

But even that hefty sum almost certainly grossly underestimates the total value, as much of the jade is smuggled out of Myanmar (formerly known in the West as Burma) and never logged in government books or tax logs. A 2011 study by the Harvard Ash Center estimated the annual value of Myanmar’s jade trade to be $8 billion.