Rice prices climb after storm losses

Manila Standard Today
Bloomberg

RICE prices rose for a fifth day on Tuesday, the best run in more than seven weeks, on speculation the damage to crops in Thailand from floods will boost demand for US supplies. Soybeans and corn rose, while wheat was little changed.

The most-active contract gained as much as 2 percent to $17.56 per 100 pounds, the highest level since Sept. 19, and traded at $17.47 on the Chicago Board of Trade at 2:31 p.m. in Singapore. The price rose 50 cents on Monday, the most permitted.

In Manila, an economist said rice imports would have to resume as a result of the damage to crops during the recent typhoons.

“The cost of rice imports may inch up because of massive damage to crops in the rice-exporting countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia,” Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.

About 12.5 percent of the rice farmland in Thailand, the largest exporter, had been damaged, the United Nations said Oct. 21. There has also been damage in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam as storms and flooding has hit the region since September.

The advance in rice was mainly due to Thailand’s floods, Lynette Tan, an analyst at Phillip Futures Pte., said by phone in Singapore.

“China may switch to the US to import their rice,” Tan said.

The floods have reached Bangkok after severing transport links, disrupting production of food and drinking water and killing more than 350 people.

Those living on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, which runs through the capital and drains the country north of the city, have been told to prepare to evacuate.

Soybeans for January delivery climbed as much as 0.8 percent to $12.445 per bushel in Chicago and last traded at $12.40. Corn for December delivery gained 0.2 percent to $6.5225 per bushel.

Wheat for delivery the same month was little changed at $6.4225 per bushel. Bloomberg