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MYANMAR
may be forced to import rice this year after crops were
wiped out by a cyclone that may have killed 15,000
people, potentially adding further pressure to global
food supplies as prices gain.
“We know
that the damage is huge,” Chookiat Ophaswongse,
president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, said
in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It’s possible
that they have to import some,” he said.
The
cyclone three days ago may be
Southeast Asia’s deadliest natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami,
according to a preliminary death toll released by
Myanmar’s military government.
Rice
futures in Chicago rose to a record last month as some
exporters, including Vietnam, curbed shipments and
demand gained.
Myanmar
would probably have exported about 400,000 metric tons
of rice this year because of soaring prices, up from
normal shipments of less than 100,000 tons, Chookiat
said. The storm will “jeopardize’” exports, he said.
Myanmar
may have exported 500,000 tons of rice this year,
according to a “tentative” April forecast from the Food
and Agriculture Organization. Thailand, the world’s
largest rice exporter, shares a border with Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma.
About
3,000 people are missing in the
Irrawaddy delta region alone, an important rice-growing area,
Myanmar
ministers told diplomats Monday, according to United
Nations news agency IRIN.
Power
was knocked out in the former capital,
Yangon, and drinking water was contaminated in the city of 5
million people.
“At
least eight townships are completely or mostly
destroyed,” said Pamela Sitko, a worker with the
US-based Christian relief group World Vision, who has
spoken with colleagues in Myanmar.
Myanmar
was forecast to export 400,000 tons of rice in 2007-08,
the US Department of Agriculture said April 9. That was
double the agency’s March estimate. The country was
expected to produce 11.3 million tons in the current
year, up from 10.6 million tons the year before, the
USDA said.
The
price of food surged after the cyclone struck, according
to the Irrawaddy newspaper, published by Myanmar
dissidents in neighboring Thailand. An egg now costs
between 200 and 250 kyat (20 cents) in
Yangon versus 50 to 70 kyat before the storm, while one viss (1.6
kilograms) of pork is between 8,000 and 8,500 kyat,
compared with 4,500 to 5,000. (Bloomberg) |
