Brazil announced it has temporarily halted rice exports to ensure domestic supply amid rising world prices for the grain.

Brazil grows more rice than it consumes and has a reserve that will safeguard the country's supply, Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes said in a statement. Sales abroad will nevertheless be blocked to make sure the country has enough of the grain for the next six to eight months.

Several Asian countries recently suspended rice exports to guarantee their own supplies, causing an imbalance in world markets, Stephanes said.

"Brazil is self-sufficient in rice production and there is a small amount that exceeds local demand, but in order to safeguard supply in the next six to eight months between harvests, exports are suspended," Stephanes said in a statement.

"We will follow the movement of the principal world producers," Stephanes said. "With the favorable price, it's possible that there will be an increase in production and that the supply situation will be resolved next year."

Brazil will not meet recent requests by African and Latin American countries for shipments totaling nearly 500,000 tons of rice, he said. Brazil currently has 1.6 million tons of rice in government warehouses.

Brazil follows on the steps of India and Vietnam, the world's second- and third-largest rice exporters in 2007, in imposing export curbs of rice in a bid to keep prices of the grain under control. Brazil, which is not a major global rice supplier, exported 313,000 tons of rice last year.