Rice futures tumbled by their daily limit for the second session as producers eased export bans, alleviating concerns that global supplies will fail to meet demand.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced that an export ban has been lifted, Chan Tong Yves, deputy head of the farm ministry, said yesterday by phone from Phnom Penh. Vietnam and India said earlier this month they may ease export curbs.
The staple for half the world, which reached a record $25.07 on the Chicago Board of Trade on April 24, slumped as much 50 cents. The record prices for food, including palm oil and wheat, have stoked concern about shortages and caused riots from Haiti to Egypt.
"The Cambodian news has damped market sentiment," Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst with Tokyo-based commodity broker Okachi & Co, said by phone yesterday. "With major producers in Southeast Asia braced for harvesting bumper crops in the next couple of months, the global market sees more supplies."
Rough rice for July delivery fell as much as 2.5 percent to $19.85 per 100 pounds, and traded at that level at 3:27 pm Singapore time. The price is still 88 percent higher than a year ago. The Chicago market, which fell 50 cents on May 23, was closed on Monday for a public holiday.
Cambodia would produce 6.8 million metric tons of unmilled rice this year after sufficient rains, compared with 6.7 million tons last year, the farm ministry's Chan Tong said.
The country has more than 1 million tons of rice available for sale overseas, the Financial Times said yesterday, citing the Cambodian premier. The ban on exports was put in place in March, the report said.
Global forecast
Global output of milled rice in 2008 will be 445.3 million tons, up 2.3 percent from last year's record 435.2 million tons, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said on May 22. Consumption will rise 2.4 percent, the agency said.
The Philippines, the world's largest rice importer, has failed this year, to fill state tenders for the grain, driving prices higher last month. The country imports about 2 million tons a year to plug a supply deficit.
A Philippine food company was the sole buyer today at a rice tender for private companies in Manila, the National Food Authority said. Uni-Agro Native Products Inc was seeking 500 tons out of the total 141,440 tons of tariff-free imports on offer, Assistant Administrator Conrad Ibanez told reporters.
Source:China Daily/Agencies
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