|
RICE
futures in Chicago plunged after a government report
showed planting of the US crop accelerated last week,
easing concerns over tight global supplies.
About 44
percent of the
US
crop was planted as of April 27, compared with 26
percent a week earlier and 56 percent a year earlier,
the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Monday.
The
average for the date from 2003 to 2007 is 58 percent.
About 20 percent of the crop has emerged from fields
last week versus 30 percent a year earlier, the USDA
said.
“The
planting progress and emerging rates for the rice crop
are better than expected,’” Nicholas Chung, senior
manager at Korea Development Bank, said by phone Tuesday
from
Seoul.
Rough
rice for July delivery fell as much as 74.5 cents, or
3.2 percent, to $22.935 per 100 pounds in after-hours
electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade, and
stood at $23.105 at 11:04 a.m. Singapore time. The
contract lost the exchange’s daily maximum of 50 cents
or 2.1 percent Tuesday.
Rice has
more than doubled in the past year as China, Vietnam and
Egypt curbed sales to safeguard domestic reserves,
reaching a record $25.07 on April 24. This has stoked
social tension in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin
America, and prompted Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club
to limit purchases of jasmine, basmati and long-grain
white rice in US stores.
Vietnam,
the world’s second-biggest rice supplier, said it will
produce enough of the cereal to meet demand from
exporters and local consumers, and banned speculators
from the domestic market to help stem price increases.
“Our
rice output this year will be sufficient for consumption
and export,” Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in a
statement posted on the government’s web site April 27.
Brokers
and anyone not involved in the food business will be
immediately banned from speculating on rice prices, he
said.
Vietnam
said on March 30 it will cut rice exports by 11 percent
to 4 million metric tons this year to ensure supplies at
home. The Vietnam Food Association has also asked
members to stop signing export contracts until June to
protect domestic supply. |
