TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. rice futures struck a new lifetime peak above $25 in Asian trading on Thursday, as worries about possible supply shortages continued to plague the world's second-biggest food grain crop.
By Miho Yoshikawa and Sybille de La Hamaide
TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - U.S. rice futures struck a new lifetime peak above $25 in Asian trading on Thursday, as worries about possible supply shortages continued to plague the world's second-biggest food grain crop.
Other grains were stable to weaker with wheat deepening its previous day's slump due to good crop prospects worldwide.
Chicago Board of Trade July rough rice futures surged to a record high of $25.010 per hundredweight overnight on worries over scarce global supplies of the grain, before falling to trade at $24.69 by 6:15 a.m. EDT.
!ADVERTISEMENT!CBOT rice is up about 80 percent so far this year. The July contract surpassed the previous record of $24.85 touched in Chicago on Wednesday, where it later closed at $24.82.
"I don't think rice is going to get cheaper," said Koji Suzuki, a market analyst at Kazaka Commodity Co Ltd.
"I think it will be hit by profit-taking selling along the way, but prices will head towards $30," Suzuki said.
Rice has been hitting successive new peaks due to worries about supply shortages that have led to political unrest and export restrictions.
Trade bans have been put in place by India, the world's second-largest rice exporter in 2007, and Vietnam, the third-biggest, in hopes of cooling domestic prices of the staple food. Thailand is the largest exporter.
In the latest move, Brazil on Wednesday temporarily suspended rice exports, the agriculture ministry said.
World organizations have warned food-producing countries against imposing export curbs, which could lead to a worsening of the international food crisis.
WHEAT SLIDES FURTHER
In an interview on Wednesday, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "If we restrict trade, we're simply going to add food scarcity to the already large problems of food shortages that exist in different countries."
CBOT wheat futures shrugged off the rice rally and continued to slide, setting new five-month lows, pressured by prospects of a large world wheat harvest starting in the Northern Hemisphere in less than two months.
CBOT May wheat was at $8.09 per bushel, down one percent from the previous day's settlement of $8.17-3/4.
European markets followed with milling wheat futures <0#BL2:> down around one percent early. Front month May was 3.25 euros lower by 1000 GMT at a new nine-month low of 197.50 euros a tonne.
"The market anticipates more and more a likely rebuilding of world stocks at this time of the year and prices continue to weaken with no signs of weather problems in the Northern hemisphere," French analyst Agritel said in its daily report.
Traders and analysts also noted Ukraine's decision to scrap its grain export restrictions, a move that sent EU wheat below the psychological level of 200 euros on Wednesday.
In other grains, CBOT May corn futures were at $5.87-1/2 a bushel, hovering near Wednesday's settlement of $5.87-3/4.
European maize was almost untraded with only 55 lots exchanged on the front month June, down 0.5 percent at 191 euros a tonne.
CBOT May soybeans were trading at $13.72-1/4 versus $13.72, the previous day's Chicago close.
(Additional reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Peter Blackburn)
