The Price of Rice

We’ve been posting a lot recently about escalating food prices in the developing world. Here’s yet another report from Reuters:

“Rice prices will likely tick higher on the back of fresh demand from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but gains will be nowhere near as dramatic as 2008 thanks to ample supplies from top exporters Thailand and Vietnam.

A sustained rise in the price of rice, a staple in the diet of nearly half the world’s population, would squeeze the budgets of millions of Asians living near the poverty line and raise concerns about a repeat of the unrest seen during the 2008 food crisis.

While global food prices have climbed to record highs in recent months, driven largely by shrinking supplies of wheat, corn and oilseeds, analysts and traders polled by Reuters said plentiful rice stocks would keep a lid on prices, despite larger-than-expected purchases by some importers.”

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