SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Global rice prices may fall in coming months due to
ample supplies, following bumper harvests by the biggest producers and weak
import demand.

  "Given expectation of good 2008 secondary (paddy) crops soon to reach the
market, a relaxation of Egypt and India's export restraints and subdued import
demand, further price drops cannot be excluded in the next few months," said a
report by the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization.

  The report warned that if white rice prices fall below $400/metric ton, it
will "result in severe losses to producers and to the public sector of the
exporting countries."

  The FAO said that world rice trade in 2009 is likely to be around 31 million
tons, 200,000 tons more than in 2008, adding that there's still much
uncertainty about how the global economic crisis may eventually impact rice
trade.

  In more rice news, Bangladesh is unlikely to import rice due to a good
domestic crop, Sheikh Enayatullah, the country's agriculture secretary, said
Thursday.

  "Plantings of rice have been good so far, due to ample availability of seeds,
fertilizers, and production may exceed last year's 32 million tons," he said.

  In another report, the International Grains Council said that prices of
grains fell over the past month, largely in response to the global economic
slowdown, fall in other commodities' and a strengthening U.S. dollar.

  The grains trade is focused on the upcoming northern hemisphere crops, the
report said. Traders are looking at the size of India's wheat crop, expected to
be a good one, impact of drought in China's wheat growing areas and continued
dry weather in southern United States.

  Traders are also looking at whether U.S. farmers will switch more area away
from sowing corn this year to sowing the more lucrative soybeans.