UK NEWS

RICE RATIONED AS PRICE ROCKETS 60% IN A YEAR

Friday April 25,2008

By Louise Barnett, Consumer Editor

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The soaring price of food yesterday forced some British wholesalers to ration supplies of rice to try to prevent panic buying.

The price of a 2lb bag of supermarket basmati rice has soared by 60 per cent in a year from 90p to £1.45.

Cash-and-carry chain Bestway, which has 51 outlets, has instructed staff not to allow bulk buying.

Spokesman Peter Cunard said: “We have got a brief out to all managers. If people look as though they are bulk buying they are being encouraged to decrease the amount so there will be enough for everybody.”

The shortage of rice looks certain to push up costs even further for over-stretched shoppers, who have already seen staple food prices rise by 15 per cent in the past year.

The first signs of panic buying emerged at American outlets as the worldwide shortage of rice became apparent.

The giant Wal-Mart chain began restricting sales of its 20lb bags to four per customer at its 580 cash-and-carry outlets as rice from the world’s biggest exporter, Thailand, hit a record 1,000 dollars a ton.

“This temporary cap is intended to ensure there’s plenty of rice for all our members,” said the firm.

Another concerned US chain, Costco, reported increased demand for items such as rice and flour as customers started to stock up.

Brazil this week became the latest country to suspend rice exports, following the examples of India and Vietnam.
Pakistan yesterday said its rice exports could also be curtailed if domestic supplies appeared to be in jeopardy.

The global shortage of rice coupled with soaring demand – wholesale prices worldwide are nearly three times higher than at the start of the year – has even led to outbreaks of violence in some countries.

There have been riots in West Africa and Haiti amid fears that millions of the world’s poor will struggle to feed themselves.

Mark Hill, head of food and agriculture at financial services firm Deloitte, said soaring rice prices were linked to a global wheat shortage.

“If wheat is expensive people switch to rice which has an effect on the demand for rice, so the price of rice goes up. They are definitely linked,” he said.

But British supermarkets were keen to stress that their supplies were not being affected. A Waitrose spokeswoman said the chain was not seeing any problems.

“In line with the rest of the market we have seen some higher costs for rice,” she said.

“We are absorbing these at present to ensure that our prices remain competitive.”

A Tesco spokeswoman said: “We have a very robust supply chain and have no indication of any problems with rice supplies.

“Customers are not changing their buying behaviour.”

A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman said: “Obviously, the cost price has gone up but in terms of availability there aren’t any issues.”

* ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE SOARING PRICE OF FOOD?

HAVE YOUR SAY NOW!

FOOD PROBLEMS

25.04.08, 10:39pm

There is very little doubt that due to many different reasosn that there will be food problems in all the countries of the World - one of the worrying things as far as the UK is concerned is that our wonderful PM is ensuring that vast areas of farming are being turned into houseing areas (so more food will be required - and there will be less areas for produce) a very good example of his complete stupidity is the building of new villages in Oakington(cambridge) and just out side Milton Keynes - no doubt there are many, many others.
Just another example of his complete and utter incompetance and uselessness - we are suffering but there is very little doubt that our grandchildren will feel the results of Balir and Browns Governments far wrose than we do!

• Posted by: nowyouknow • Report Comment

FOOD SHORTAGES

25.04.08, 8:31pm

Too many mouths to feed and not enough food?

The British people know all about birth control and do a good job. However, there are areas of the world where people have very large families. This is obviously unsustainable and things will only get worse unless "population growth" is stopped. The only way to stop food shortages will be to educate the third world to limit the size of their families.

Less people, more space, more food, cleaner air, less polution.

Obvious really.

• Posted by: Peter_Pan • Report Comment