Rice may rally 22 percent by yearend as Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, buys the grain from farmers at above-market rates, pushing up costs for importers and fanning global inflation even as economic growth slows.
The price of 100 percent grade-B Thai rice, the regional benchmark, may rally to $750 per metric ton by Dec. 31, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of seven exporters, traders and millers conducted last week. That target is $50 higher than the median estimate in a separate Bloomberg survey undertaken in the first half of this month.
The surge may complicate matters for central bankers and policy makers around Asia who are already struggling to cool rising prices. Rice was the only grain separating the world from a food crisis, Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said in February when worldwide food costs rallied to a record.
“If the sources of supply are actually inflating the prices for their commodities, regardless whether there’s supply or not, that’s going to keep prices elevated,” Abah Ofon, an analyst at Standard Chartered Plc, said by phone from Singapore. “That would keep risks for food inflation elevated.” (more)
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