Rice slumped for a fifth day, heading for the biggest weekly decline in almost four years, as the prospect of exports from Pakistan and Japan eased concern that a global food shortage is worsening.

Pakistan, the fifth-biggest exporter, will permit shipments of 1 million metric tons because local needs have been met, Mohammad Azhar Akhtar, chairman of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan, said yesterday.

The staple for half the world reached a record last month as some exporters including Vietnam and India cut sales to guarantee local supplies, stoking concern that hunger and unrest may spread. The price fell 14 percent this week, the biggest weekly drop since July 2, 2004, according to Bloomberg data.

``Rice prices appear to have already peaked,'' Kazuhiko Saito, a strategist at Interes Capital Management Co. in Tokyo, said by phone today. ``Some exporters may resume their sales before producers in Asia harvest new crops.''

Rough rice for July delivery fell as much as $1.02, or 5 percent, to $19.32 per 100 pounds, the lowest since April 2, on the Chicago Board of Trade. The contract, which reached a record $25.07 on April 24, traded at $19.705 as of 10 a.m. in London.

``The wheels are in motion for lower food prices,'' John Reeve, associate director for agricultural commodities at UBS AG, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Farm output costs were below selling prices and harvests were due, he said.

Export Curbs

The surge in rice prices, coupled with record energy and wheat costs, had stoked concern about a global food crisis as basic goods cost more than the poor could afford. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated May 12 the global rice trade will drop 7.1 percent this year to 28.8 million tons.

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