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Singapore : The US vowed to supply the Philippines, the biggest buyer of rice, with as much as it needs after some of the world's largest exporters cut sales to safeguard domestic supplies.
"You are assured absolutely," Kristie Kenney, ambassador to the Southeast Asian country, told reporters in Bataan province, west of Manila yesterday. Philippine President Gloria Arroyo announced plans on Tuesday to purchase one million tonnes of the grain and said she would jail anyone found guilty of "stealing rice from the people".
The US will help the nation "weather the ups and downs of the world economy," US embassy spokes-woman Rebecca Thompson said yesterday.
Rice, the staple food for half the world, has doubled in price in the past year as China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global shipments, reduced sales to secure domestic supplies. The price of the cereal in Chicago rose 1.7 per cent yesterday to $20.825 per 100 pounds, below the record $21.60 per 100 pounds on Tuesday.
"You might see another 10 or 20 per cent move to the upside," said Vijay Iyengar, Singapore-based managing director of Agrocorp International Pte., a commodity trading company. "Prices will be sustainable."
The Philippine National Food Authority said yesterday it may raise the amount of subsidised rice sold in Manila and the police said they would increase their presence at markets and stores to deter outbreaks of violence.
The nation may raise imports of milled rice by as much as 42 per cent to 2.7 million tonnes this year from 1.9 million tonnes in 2007 to discourage speculation by local traders, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said March 26.
US rice exports, the third largest behind those of Thailand and Vietnam, were forecast to jump 22 percent to 3.58 million tonnes in the year ended July 31, the US Department of Agriculture said on March 11.
Price gains
The cost of rice exports from Vietnam may rise by as much as $200 per tonne to $900 in the next two months because of world price gains and the end of the winter-spring crop, Truong Van Anh, director of Long An Food Co., said yesterday.
Global food prices increased 57 per cent last month from a year earlier, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said on its website. The rise comes from higher meat and grain prices, including rice, corn and wheat, it noted.
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