Cyclone could hurt Myanmar rice exports: WFP
BANGKOK (AFP) — The deadly cyclone that struck Myanmar devastated its main rice-growing region, and could threaten exports meant to ease shortages in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the UN food agency said Tuesday.
Flooding, which poured damaging salt water into paddy fields, could create long-term food insecurity for Myanmar and other poor Asian countries, World Food Programme spokesman Paul Risley warned.
The full extent of damage to rice supplies cannot be assessed yet because parts of the country have been cut off by flooding and damage to roads caused by Cyclone Nargis, which the government says has killed more than 15,000 people.
But Risley said that any disruption of rice supplies could be devastating.
"This year, while other Southeast Asian countries have been putting in place export bans and cutting rice exports, Myanmar has begun exporting to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh," he told AFP.
"So there are long-term concerns whether Myanmar can continue to maintain self-sufficiency and also whether they can continue commitments to other countries."
Any effect on exports would be felt sharply in other Asian countries where there are millions living in poverty as global prices for rice hit record highs last month.
The storm could also threaten food supplies within Myanmar, because WFP normally buys rice from the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy river delta region to feed the poor in five northern regions of the country.
"Obviously we may have to change those plans if there are significant food security needs," Risley added. "This may affect Myanmar's ability to feed all of its people.
Now people in the delta need food aid as well, Risley said.
WFP is for the first time organising food aid to the delta, which was the region worst hit by the cyclone. State media say that 10,000 people died just in the town of Bogalay, which lies in the heart of the region.
"The agency has begun transporting 900 metric tonnes of food from a warehouse in Myanmar's capital Yangon today. We expect to fill several trucks and move them towards the area," Risley added.
Before the cyclone hit, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) had forecast that Myanmar would export 500,000 tonnes of rice this year.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which will not produce enough rice to meet their own needs this year, had clinched rice deals with Myanmar as world prices have soared.
Part of Bangladesh's rice shortage stemmed from destruction of its own crops by Cyclone Sidr last November.
Rice prices in Bangladesh have doubled over the past year, according to the FAO, while jumping 55 percent in Sri Lanka.
The benchmark Thai variety, Pathumthani fragrant rice, was priced last Wednesday at 998 dollars (646 euros) per tonne for export, up from 512 dollars in January this year, the Thai Rice Exporters Association said in a survey.
The global price increases have been blamed on higher energy and fertiliser costs, greater global demand, droughts, the loss of rice farmland to biofuel plantations, and price speculation.
Some countries, including major exporters such as Vietnam and India, have slapped limits on exports to ensure their own domestic supply.
That had made even relatively small exporters like Myanmar all the more important to countries seeking to buy the grain.
