Cyclone damage could hit Myanmar rice exports: FAO

By Darren Schuettler

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Cyclone damage to rice crops and inventories in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta and other areas may impair its exports of the grain in 2008 and further tighten the world rice market, the U.N. food agency said on Wednesday.

The storm, which battered five states accounting for 65 percent of the former Burma's rice output, may trigger "localized food shortages" and require imports from neighbors, it said.

"Damage to annual crops is expected, in particular on rice, palm oil and rubber plantations," the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in an early assessment of the damage.

The cyclone, which has killed nearly 22,500 people and made up to one million homeless, left 5,000 sq km (1,931 sq mile) in the delta, Myanmar's rice bowl, underwater.

With global stocks for the staple food of half of the world's population halved since 2001 and prices soaring due to export curbs by some producers, the FAO said lower exports or larger imports by Myanmar "would lead to a further tightening of the world rice market".

The FAO said its 2007 production estimate of 30.02 million tonnes of paddy, or an equivalent 18.9 million tonnes of milled rice, may "be downgraded somewhat once the extent of the damage is better known".

The impact on rice supplies already harvested might also be serious due to poor storage facilities.

"If post-harvest losses turn out being large, localized food shortages in the short term may result," the FAO said.