The rainy season has arrived, and there is a large harvest of bamboo shoots! Purchase prices in Myanmar's mountainous areas are revealed, and people are flocking to the mountains to dig for shoots.

A bamboo shoot picker in the southeastern mountains of Pyinmana said, "The rainy season from July to October is the bamboo shoot season, and during this time we have to go into the mountains and forests to find and dig for shoots. City people who want to eat sour bamboo shoots or bamboo shoot dishes can easily buy them in the market for a price, but those who pick the shoots have to dig hard in the mountains and forests."

The bamboo shoots used to make sour bamboo shoots mainly come from the eastern mountains of Pyinmana, where grey bamboo and dragon bamboo are abundant. After heavy rainfall during the rainy season, pickers need to go deep into the bamboo forests to find and dig the shoots.

One picker explained, "We people from the mountains have to go deep into the dense forests to find good shoots. It is difficult to find them in places where the bamboo forest is lush, and we have to cross mountains and ridges. It is too dangerous for one person to go into the mountains alone, so usually five or six people go together, and the picked shoots are sent to the collection points."

Currently, buyers from Pyinmana and Dagong town urban areas set up collection points in the bamboo shoot-producing mountain villages before the shoot season and then transport the bamboo shoots to the towns by truck. The current market price is 2500 Myanmar kyat for a bundle (about 1.6 kg) of shredded shoots and 2400 Myanmar kyat for a bundle of whole shoots.