Rice and sugar harvests in the Philippines were
damaged by Super Typhoon Haiyan when the most
powerful storm on record to strike the country unleashed winds and floods that
may have killed as many as 10,000 people.
Rice imports may increase, pushing purchases above
an estimate of 1.1 million metric tons by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
said Samarendu Mohanty,
senior economist at the International Rice Research Institute. Between 50,000
tons and 120,000 tons of sugar may have been lost, the Sugar Regulatory
Administration estimated.
An expansion in rice shipments to the Southeast
Asian country would offer opportunities to India, Vietnam and Thailand, the world’s
three biggest exporters. Stockpiles of the grain in Thailand stand at a record
after a state-buying program spurred local harvests. The Philippine government
warned that the devastation from Haiyan may hurt the
economy, estimating that farm damage totaled 3.7
billion pesos ($85 million.)
A total of 131,611 tons of rice was lost,
equivalent to a 1.8 percent reduction in fourth-quarter output, according to a
report from the Department of Agriculture on 11 November. About 71,000 hectares
(175,000 acres) of farmland were affected, it said, adding that about 4,000
tons of corn were destroyed.
The Food & Agriculture Organization is
dispatching an emergency mission to the Philippines to gauge the impact from
the typhoon, said Hiroyuki Konuma, regional
representative for Asia and the Pacific region. While it’s too early to assess
the magnitude of the damage, rice imports may rise, Konuma said.
Rough rice fell 0.9 percent to $15.55 per 100
pounds on the Chicago Board of Trade in Manila. Sugar dropped 6.7 percent in
the past year to 18.07 cents a pound in New York.
The United Coconut Association of the Philippines
has yet to receive damage reports from the field as the majority of affected
areas still have no communications, said Executive Director Yvonne Agustin. The
country is the world’s largest producer after India and Indonesia, according to
figures from the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community.