US rough rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose the 50-cent limit on Monday on worries about tight global rice supplies, strong demand and the rally in CBOT corn and soy, traders said. The front two months closed locked limit up. May rice settled at $21.42 per hundredweight and July at $21.74. The back months made contract highs.
Given the limit-up settlement in two months, the trading limits expanded to 75 cents for Tuesday trade. There was no synthetically traded May or July futures. But late option bids indicated futures were near the settlement prices while the offers were about 15 cents higher, traders said.
The feature in options was commercial buying of at-the-money and out-of-the-money puts - mostly in May and July. Traders estimated that 1,500 futures traded. Rising food prices led to riots in Haiti this weekend. The Haitian government announced an emergency plan on Saturday to bring down the price of rice by 15 percent in a bid to stop food riots.
Pit traders said they were also concerned about shortages of rice in The Philippines and the potential for unrest. Rains have delayed US rice planting. USDA reported late Monday that 14 percent of the crop was seeded on Sunday, compared to 27 percent for the five-year average.