Staff.com Thursday, 08 May 2008
US rice futures have risen more than 2 per cent in Asian trading as supply worries over the staple food of many Asians, heightened by the Myanmar cyclone, helped prices of the grain to recover from recent selloffs.
Other grains also traded firmer, led by corn, as a rise in the crude oil price to a record high overnight boosted expectations of strong demand for the commodities, which are used to produce biofuels and feed.
"On top of record oil prices and a weaker US dollar, renewed supply worries and fears of fresh export curbs by major rice exporters are providing some support for the grain," said a trader at Samsung Futures.
Rice prices rose more than 2 per cent, as concerns that cyclone-hit Myanmar may face food shortages helped to halt a recent retreat in Asian prices.
The market had been pressured this week after the Philippines decided on Monday to postpone its rice imports until prices had eased.
Myanmar's junta insists it has enough rice stocks to keep people fed, but the price of small bags of the staple have doubled since the cyclone tore through the Irrawaddy delta, the country's rice bowl.
A United Nations official said earlier this week that the cyclone and flooding in the country's two major rice-growing areas had potentially serious effects for food supply in two other impoverished countries: Sri Lanka and Banglasdesh. .
US rough rice futures for July delivery rose 2.1 per cent, or 45 cents, to $US21.55 per hundredweight and the September contract rose 2.1 percent to $US19.50.
Most actively traded May corn futures rose 1.3 per cent to $US6.14 per bushel, bolstered by firm oil prices, slow US seedings and forecasts for less-than-ideal planting weather over the next week.
Soybeans rebounded, continuing their volatile trade amid uncertainties over Argentine soybean exports. After the CBOT markets closed, an Argentine farm leader said the government was willing to modify its export tax system and talks would continue.
The tax triggered a three-week strike in March that halted Argentine exports, shifting some soy export business to the United States.
Wheat futures traded higher on spillover strength from other grains, with the July contract rising 0.6 per cent to $US8.23 per bushel.
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