(May 9) (Bloomberg) -- Rice gained for a sixth day, approaching a record, after a cyclone in Myanmar damaged crops, adding further pressure to global food supplies.

``The cyclone damage in the country has again highlighted tight global supplies of rice,'' Kenji Kobayashi, a grain analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management Co., said by telephone from Tokyo today. ``The rice price is now set to retest the previous peak.''

Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's main rice-growing area on May 3, exacerbating a food crisis that's triggered unrest from Somalia to Haiti. Rice, wheat, corn and soybeans have risen to records this year, boosting hunger and severe malnutrition, according to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Rice futures rose as much as $1.03, or 4.6 percent, to $23.38 per 100 pounds in Chicago, and traded at $23.10 at 8:13 a.m. Singapore time. The contract, which has gained as much as 13 percent since May 1, has more than doubled in the past year and touched a record $25.07 on April 24.

The Food and Agriculture Organization warned yesterday that ``time is running out to prepare'' for Myanmar's main rice- planting season, which starts early next month with the arrival of monsoon rains.

The five provinces that bore the brunt of the typhoon account for about two-thirds of the nation's rice output. The storm killed as many as 100,000 people and flooded 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles) of farmland in the Irrawaddy delta.

`Dwindling Stockpiles'

``I cannot rule out the possibility that the rice price will go above $30 per 100 pounds in Chicago,'' said Kobayashi. There are ``export curbs by some exporters, dwindling stockpiles and hoarding in some consuming countries.''

The storm has stoked speculation, including from the Thai Rice Exporters Association, that Myanmar may be forced to abandon exports and seek supplies on the international market.

Myanmar had been expected to export 600,000 metric tons of rice this year, the Food and Agriculture Organization has said, citing the amount the government reportedly allowed exporters to buy from farmers. The Rome-based United Nations agency had forecast world rice exports at 29.9 million tons.

Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, yesterday agreed to sell 500,000 tons to neighboring Malaysia. ``If we don't buy now, the price might increase in the future,'' Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.

The tropical cyclone was ``the opening shot for the southwest monsoon season,'' AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews said in a statement dated yesterday. ``Starting this weekend and going through middle of next week, it's going to rain periodically -- torrential rain at times.''

The benchmark export price of Thai 100 percent grade B white rice gained 10 percent to a record $941 a metric ton this week, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

(Editor: Jia Fu)