Soaring prices compound Myanmar's cyclone misery

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - A large "Happy World" sign hangs above a dilapidated food market in Yangon, but on the streets shoppers are far from content.

A month after Cyclone Nargis scythed a path of destruction through Myanmar's former capital and Irrawaddy delta, leaving 134,000 dead or missing, those spared by the storm are struggling to cope with soaring prices for food and fuel.

"Of course everyone is unhappy, but nobody dares complain," stall-owner Daw Ngee Yee said as her offerings of fruit and vegetables wilted under a hot afternoon sun.

Ordinary life in Myanmar, already tough in one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of military rule, has become much harder since the cyclone devastated the country's rice bowl.

A 50 kg bag of rice now sells for 38,000 kyat, or about $34.50, up from 27,000 kyat before the storm flooded more than one million acres of arable land with seawater.

Peanut oil, used for cooking, has jumped nearly 40 percent to 5,500 kyat for a 2 kg container.

In a country where government workers earn $30 a month or less, people often spend around two thirds of their income to put meals on the table.

"The rich are okay, but while prices go up, salaries stay the same. We have to eat smaller meals," 27-year-old Ma Oo said as she inspected tied bunches of vegetable greens at the market.

But Ma Oo, who moved to Yangon two months ago in search of a better life, counts herself lucky to have some food to buy in Yangon where life is slowly getting back to what passed for normal before the cyclone.

FOOD AID APPEAL

Four weeks on, Myanmar's reclusive junta is gradually and grudgingly opening up to foreign aid and expertise. It has handed out more visas to foreign experts, but access to the delta remains restricted.

The U.N. World Food Programme said it has given 575,000 people their first ration of rice, "but many people have not been reached, and others are now due a second round of distributions."

WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said its $70 million food aid program faced a 64-percent funding shortfall, as did its logistics plan which includes boats, trucks and helicopters.

"With current contributions, we will run out of food by mid-July," Sheeran said after a weekend visit to Myanmar.

With markets back to normal in Yangon, WFP and four NGOs have begun handing out cash, about 50 U.S. cents per person/per day, to help people buy their own food.