The cyclone hit during a season when the country’s farmers are usually completing the smaller of two annual rice

harvests. Earlier this year, state-run media said that Myanmar’s leaders were confident it could produce enough

rice to feed the 53 million people of the country. Grain traders were expecting the country’s farmers to reap a

bumper crop. In April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted Myanmar would produce 11.3 million metric

tons of milled rice this year, roughly twice the usual U.S. production. U.S. Agriculture Department analysts had

estimated Myanmar could double its foreign sales this year to 400,000 metric tons.

Myanmar is one of the few countries that had planned to increase rice exports to cash in on high global prices:

Many larger rice producers, including Vietnam and India, have restricted their exports to ensure their own supplies.

Thailand, the world’s largest rice exporter, is one of the few big producers not to curtail rice sales. It is now taking

on the lion’s share of supplying rice to other developing countries. Thai rice prices are now at $920 a metric ton.

That’s down 10% from last week, but still almost three times as high as they were at the beginning of year.