As the price of rice climbs across South Asia, farmers and millers in Thailand are sitting on stocks and waiting for it to rise even further, said a top rice exporter in Bangkok.
The exporter, who requested anonymity, told The Straits Times: 'In my 25 years of trading, I have never seen such a bad position.' There is a rice shortage in Bangladesh and China too, among other countries, while there is a wheat shortage in Afghanistan.
In local markets in Pakistan, the price of rice has gone up over the past month by more than 60 per cent year on year. India recently contributed to soaring world prices when it imposed a ban on rice exports — relaxed only partially to allow some supplies to Madagascar, Mauritius, the Comoros Islands and cyclone-hit Bangladesh. China has banned rice exports to ensure enough is available for domestic demand.
From Kansas to Kabul, high rice and wheat prices are worrying officials and economists, and beginning to hit consumers — especially tens of millions of poor people — harder than many can remember. In Singapore, while rice importers and supermarkets have no problems getting the staple grain, prices have escalated.
In the past three months, prices have risen sharply by 30 per cent to 40 per cent, said a spokesman for rice importer Tong Seng Produce. FairPrice, which has diversified its rice import — with supplies coming from Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and India — has been able to secure its regular supply...
The causes of the shortages and high prices are diverse, and vary from country to country. They include natural disasters or adverse weather; high fuel prices, which add to transport costs; hoarding and smuggling of rice and wheat to take advantage of higher prices across national borders; and, in Pakistan, a shortage of electricity that is reportedly hampering mills from functioning at full capacity.
Only around 7 per cent of the world's rice supply is traded internationally, but it is a critical amount for any country facing a shortage because rice is also a political commodity. Worldwide, economists are worried that the diversion of agricultural land and certain crops to biofuel production is cutting into grain and cereal production for human consumption.
The prices of rice and wheat are linked. India's ban was not as much in response to a shortage of rice as to worries over the coming wheat harvest. Indian officials are waiting for the results of the March-April wheat harvest as well as the rice harvest from south India to gain a fuller picture of their stocks. In the United States, wheat futures in Kansas City, Chicago and Minneapolis have surged to record highs on forecasts of tighter supplies and continued strong demand at home and abroad.
Meanwhile - the Washington Post discusses a climate-related French Truffle shortage
At $560 a pound that problem is not going to affect me - I've never had them. Though someday I may try an Australian or Chinese variety truffle which go for less than $20 a pound.
...Daniel used to deal in big quantities. But for the past five years, drought has been parching the Var region of southeast France as well as truffle-producing regions in Italy and Spain _ and today he can fit his entire weekly harvest in a single plastic bag.
He's not the only one.
Organizers at the market in the Var village of Aups, where Daniel plies his wares, have had to suspend the weekly wholesale auction, where middlemen used to bid tens of thousands of dollars for mounds of truffles. The reason: these days there simply aren't enough of the fragrant fungi.
Now, foodies and tourists buying truffles by the piece have replaced the bulk-buying middlemen, and most transactions at the once-bustling market are measured in grams. At the Aups market, the black truffle's price has more than doubled over the past five years, to about $560 a pound.
Farmers say production is down by 50-75 percent this winter season and they blame global warming, warning that if thermometers keep rising _ as many scientists predict they could _ France's black truffle will one day be just a memory...
"Climate change has got the seasons out of whack, it's hotter than it used to be and it rains lots less," said Jean Montesano, 76, a trufficulteur for more than half a century. "I want my grandson to take over, but if things continue like this, who knows if there will be anything left."
Production in France has been in slow decline for 100 years _ from 1,000 tons a year to just 50 tons, according to the Agriculture Ministry _ under the march of urban sprawl into the fungus' forest habitat and the migration of farming folk to cities...
France imported 33 tons of fresh or frozen truffles from China in 2007, overtaking French production for the first time..."If Europe's catastrophic decline continues, it could well be that the Southern Hemisphere will overtake production in the north..."
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