US rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CboT) fell on profit-taking on Monday after on Thursday's 50-cent limit rally, spurred by USDA's smaller end-season rice stock forecast, traders said. May rice closed 11 cents weaker at $13.28-1/2 per hundredweight. July ended down 13 at $13.41.
Old-crop months at 80 cent to $1 premium to new-crop amid tighter 2008/09 domestic stocks and forecasts for US farmers to seed 6 percent more rice acres this spring versus 2008. USDA is forecasting 2008/09 US end-stocks at 22.2 million cwt - the lowest since 1998/99, if realised. Government reported after CBOT closed that 22 percent of the US rice crop was seeded by Sunday, versus 25 percent for the five-year pace.