Myanmar Disaster Also Affects World's Rice Eaters

The destructive tsunami that has killed more than 22,000 people in Myanmar quite obviously has a food repercussion. First of all, the hundreds of thousands of survivors  in the devastated area must be fed. And there is no telling whether or not the tightly-controlling regime in power will allow adequate aid and food aid workers into the country.

In addition, according to a report in The Economist:

"The disaster may have ill effects well beyond Myanmar’s borders. UN agencies such as the WFP are already suffering huge strains on their finances because of the soaring cost of rice and other food staples. Having another big emergency on their hands may force them to divert scarce resources from other needy parts. Worse, the cyclone, which hit Myanmar’s main rice-growing areas, may intensify the worldwide panic over scarce rice supplies that have led to food riots in dozens of countries."

Thailand, the world's largest exporter of rice, cannot grow much more than it does already. Still,  in April the FAO forecast that most Asian and Latin American rice producing areas would do better in 2008, while Australian rice production would fall due to water shortages and US production would be less as  more profitable crops replaced rice among farmers.  But the FAO did not forecast the typhoon/cyclone that just wiped out much of  Myanmar's rice paddies.   The brightest spot may well be Cambodia,  one Asian country with a decided surplus in rice--even there, officials may well restrict exports of rice, given the volatile nature of the market.

Update from the LA Times---"This is the rice bowl of Myanmar, so we have to assess the impact on food production in the longer term, " said ( Christine ) South, (with the International Red Cross.)

Myanmar had agreed to supply tens of thousands of tons of rice to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, according to the World Food Program (WFP), but now those prospects are uncertain."