Rice prices in Asia are unlikely to fall much in the rest of this week, as the impact of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar is most likely to lead to the country importing rice for its domestic use.

According to a U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization projection in early April, before the cyclone hit Myanmar, the country was expected to harvest a bumper rice crop of 32 million MT in 2008, up 500,000 MT from last year. Myanmar was also projected to export up to 500,000 MT of rice this year compared with none last year.  

 The cyclone's impact has been the heaviest in the Irrawaddy river delta, which grows a large part of Myanmar's paddy crop.