Burmese stock up on rice - if they can afford it

YANGON (Reuters) - Thu Zar Nwe's rice store on a dusty street in Yangon has done roaring trade since last month's cyclone and sea surge engulfed more than one million acres of arable land in Myanmar's key food bowl.

"If they have money, people are buying for a long time," she said, as workers loaded an antiquated truck with 50 kg sacks of rice outside her "Silver Earth" bulk rice shop.

The shop has been selling up to 300 sacks a day since Cyclone Nargis struck on May 2.

Since the storm, the price of top quality rice has jumped from 28,000 kyat per bag (about 13 pounds), to 42,000 kyat, making life even tougher in what was already one of Asia's most impoverished nations after 46 years of military rule.

Thu Zar Nwe's store is a minor oddity in Myanmar since it is private and not linked to the ruling generals, who keep a tight rein over the market for the country's staple food.

"Next year we will have problems getting good quality rice, so I think the price can only go up," added Thu Zar Nwe, a small diamond sparkling on her front tooth.

"Ordinary people are buying lower quality rice. Business is bad for most people apart from the rich, so they are buying daily, bit by bit," she added.

In a tiny room in a food and grocery market nearby, shopkeeper Khin Soe tells the same story.

"The wealthy are buying and holding the rice, and for them it is okay. The poor have to buy what they can each day," he said, sitting shirtless in the morning heat.