2008 global rice shortage

In March to May 2008, some national governments began restricting exports of rice [

cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/business/worldbusiness/29rice.html?_r=2&scp=4&sq=growing%20rice%20shortage&st=cse&oref=login&oref=slogin|title=High Rice Cost Creating Fears of Asia Unrest |last=Bradsher|first=Keith|date=March 29, 2008|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=2008-05-02] [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/business/rice.php "Vietnam and India move to limit rice exports"] International Herald Tribune March 29, 2008

] and some retailers began rationing sales, due to fears of insufficient global supplies of the grain, thus becoming another key aspect to the 2007–2008 world food price crisis. [ [http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/global_rice_shortage_sparks_panic_545601 "Global rice shortage sparks panic" "World News Australia" April 24, 2008]

] In late April 2008, rice prices hit 24 cents a pound, twice the price that it was seven months earlier. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7387251.stm "Cyclone fuels rice price increase"] , "BBC News", 7 May 2008]

While no one single cause is blamed, the dependency of rice on oil prices, six years of drought in Australia's rice-growing regions appears to have tipped the scales toward a worrisome reduction in global rice supplies, and the commensurate rise in global prices. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/worldbusiness/17warm.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin "A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice"] , New York Times, 17 April 2008.]

Traditionally dependent upon rice as their main staple food, Asian nations such as India, China, Bangladesh, Philippines and Thailand were the first to "feel the pinch" of rising prices. Japan, which produces enough rice for its domestic needs, was able to maintain a constant pricing and no consumer concern. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7324596.stm " Asian states feel rice pinch"] , BBC News, 11 April 2008.]

Asian rice consumers and agricultural commodity traders around the world had been aware of the problem for months, but it garnered widespread attention in the United States in the week beginning April 21, 2008 when a Costco Wholesale Corporation store in San Francisco, California limited rice purchases to five 20-pound bags per customer. [ [http://www.freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=79029&Disp=0 "Rice Shortage Roils San Francisco Stores, Markets, Food Banks"] , Bloomberg, 25 April 2008.] Later in the week, on April 23, the outlet reduced that number to two. Also on April 23, Wal-Mart division Sam's Club announced it would limit the sales of 20-lb. bags of long-grain rice to four per customer. Other sources stated that the limits were only placed on imported rice, and that non-imported medium- and short-grain rice remained in comparative abundance. [ [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/25/BUUR10AOLH.DTL "Global rice squeeze hitting U.S. consumers"] , San Francisco Chronicle 25 April 2008.] Also on April 23, "Thai shipments of rice" to a major Canadian rice wholesaler, Western Mills, Ltd. [http://www.westernricemills.ca/company.html] abruptly ceased::""We've never seen anything like this in the history of this company," said Lawry Poupart, controller at the company, which supplies major chains including Safeway and Save-On-Foods. "Everybody is precariously watching what's happening in the world." [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080424.wrrice24/BNStory/National "From Wal-Mart quotas to a 'frenzy' in Vancouver, Asia's rice crisis goes global"] Canadian Globe and Mail, April 24, 2008]

Food Riots

Deadly riots over the rising price of food erupted in Haiti on April 4,2008, [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7331921.stm "Food riots turn deadly in Haiti"] BBC news, April 5, 2008 ] due primarily to a jump in the price of rice, "the main ingredient of the Haitian diet," [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24072532/] . Six people were killed in the unrest, including a U.N. peacekeeping soldier on April 12, and the unrest subsided only when the nation's Prime Minister resigned and the government lowered the price for a bushel of rice. [ [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/360096_foodshortage23.html "World food crisis hits home"] (see timeline in the article) Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 24, 2008] These developments caused alarm in the highest levels of global economic analysis and planning. [ [http://foodcrisis.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/crisis-in-haiti-as-world-bank-issues-food-price-warning/ "Crisis in Haiti as World Bank issues food price warning"] "foodcrisis.wordpress.com" April 16, 2008.] [ [http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley04212008.html "The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots"] April 21, 2008. Bill Quigley via Counterpunch.org ]

ee also

*Bengal famine of 1943 a similar set of circumstances in 1943, in which fear of a shortage and price inflation made available rice too expensive for the poor, leading to famine.

References