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RICE
surged for a fourth day on speculation Myanmar may be
transformed from a net exporter to a buyer on the
international market after last weekend’s cyclone
damaged crops that left as many as 60,000 people dead or
missing.
Rice for
July delivery rose as much as 50 cents, or 2.4 percent,
to $21.60 per 100 pounds on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Weekly prices from Thailand, the world’s biggest
exporter, are set to be released later today by the
country’s main exporters group.
Cyclone
Nargis struck the main rice-growing area of Myanmar,
worsening a food crisis that threatens as many as 1
billion Asians.
The
staple food for half the world has almost doubled in the
past year, stoking protests and poverty from
Haiti
to the Philippines.
“The
cyclone damage in Myanmar will further tighten rice
supplies, especially in Asia,’’ Takaki Shigemoto, an
analyst at Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co.,
said Wednesday by phone.
“This
may drive importers to rush for supplies as the cyclone
has made the rice exporter rely on food aid.”
Estimates differ for
Myanmar’s
pre-storm rice production. The Food and Agriculture
Organization has forecast output of 18.9 million tons of
milled rice in the crop year to October 31. The U.S
Department of Agriculture forecast production of 11.3
million tons.
Before
the storm, the FAO had estimated that Myanmar may have
exported 600,000 metric tons of rice this year, with
shipments set for Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. That
compares with estimated global exports this year of 29.9
million tons, according the Rome-based United Nations
agency. (Bloomberg) |
