Myanmar's foreign trade amounted to 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first four months (April-July) of the fiscal year 2011-12, up 24 percent from over 4.5 billion dollars in the same period 2010-11, a local weekly reported Monday.

Of the total, the export took 2.4 billion dollars, while the import represented 3.4 billion dollars, suffering a trade deficit of 1 billion dollars, the Myanmar Times said.

In 2010-11, Myanmar's foreign trade rose to 15 billion U.S. dollars from 11.8 billion dollars in 2009-10, but the agricultural exports dropped to 900,000 tonnes in 2010-11 from 1.3 million tons in 2009-10 and from 1.5 million tons in 2008-09.

Myanmar's rice export also fell sharply to 500,000 tonnes in 2010-11 from 900,000 tonnes in 2009-10.

The decline was partly attributed to the depreciation of U.S. dollar since the middle of 2010, which has also slashed exporters' earnings.

Natural disasters also trimmed rice outputs in 2010. In October 2010, flood occurred in many areas in Myanmar such as Mandalay, Magway, Ayeyarwady and Sagaing regions and Shan, Rakhine and Chin states, destroying some paddy fields in Ayeyarwaddy Delta region.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has projected to produce 41.8 million tonnes of paddy in 2010-11.

Myanmar's foreign trade is dominated by that with Thailand, followed by China, India and Bangladesh.

Myanmar mainly exports agricultural, animal, marine, mineral, forestry products and finished goods, while it imports cement, agricultural machinery and its spare parts, computer and electronic devices, motor cars, motorcycles, mobile phones and their accessories.