News Release

On October 11 (local time), Yanmar Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka City; President: Takehito Yamaoka) held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction* of a local testing plant in order to commence verification testing of biomass gasification power generation using rice husks in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
Agriculture makes up approximately 30% of Myanmar's GDP, and approximately 60% of its population is employed in the agriculture industry, making one of Southeast Asia's leading agricultural nations. The country's rice production was 28,770,000 tons per year in FY2013, with an overseas export of 1,300,000 tones, making rice one of the country's principal exports.
The country uses hydraulic power for nearly 70% of its power supply with a low average electrification rate of less than 30% including countryside areas, and stable electrical power supply is a serious issue for the country.

Yanmar has built its knowhow carrying out biomass gasification power generation verification testing in various areas throughout the country. We have focused the use of this biomass gasification power generation technology in Myanmar, because the nation is such a major producer of rice and the technology can contribute to both the effective utilization of the massive quantities of rice husks that are produced each year and also to electrification of countryside areas.

Our company has collected and cultivated knowledge and knowhow related to the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries throughout the course of our over 100 years of history, as we aim to resolved the diverse issues faced by these same industries, and to contribute to the achievement of a global resource recycling society.
We are working closely together with our Myanmar partner business MAPCO (Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation) and aim to begin verification testing in FY2017.

The Myanmar Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation and the Japanese Ambassador to Myanmar attended the groundbreaking ceremony held on October 11, and participants expressed great expectations for the project.

• ※This project has been carrying out local verification testing for 3 years from 2015 as a Ministry of the Environment subsidized program.

＜About Yanmar＞

With beginnings in Osaka, Japan in 1912, Yanmar was the first ever to succeed in making a compact diesel engine of a practical size in 1933. Moving on, with industrial diesel engines as the cornerstone of the enterprise, Yanmar has continued to expand its product range, services, and expertise to deliver total solutions as an industrial equipment manufacturer. As a provider of small and large engines, agricultural machinerys and facilities, construction equipment, energy systems, marine, machine tools, and components — Yanmar’s global business operations span seven domains.
On land, at sea, and in the city, Yanmar’s Mission of “providing sustainable solutions focused on the challenges customers face, in food production and harnessing power, thereby enriching people’s lives for all our tomorrows,” stands testament to Yanmar’s determination to providing us with “A Sustainable Future.” For more information, visit Yanmar Co., Ltd. at its global website at https://www.yanmar.com/global/about/.