Rice Jumps Exchange Limit to One-Month High on Asia Flood Damage
Rice futures jumped the most permitted by the Chicago Board of Trade, advancing to a one- month high, as flood damage to crops in Southeast Asia boosted prospects for U.S. exports. Storms since September damaged 12.5 percent of paddies in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, and crops in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization said in a report dated Oct. 21. Floods and drought will cut U.S. output by 23 percent in the season that ends July 31, the government said Oct. 12. Prices have rallied 11 percent in the past two weeks. “Thailand won’t be able to export as much, which will drive business to the U.S.,” Dennis DeLaughter, the owner of Progressive Farm Marketing Inc. in Edna, Texas, said in a telephone interview. “The U.S. doesn’t have very much rice yet, so it will pop up prices. We’re talking about some world trade shortages.”….
