[ExI] rice price

[Samantha Atkins]

scerir wrote:
> Damien wrote:
>   
>> Uh-oh:
>> LONDON and BANGKOK -- Rice prices jumped 30 per cent to an all-time
>> high on Thursday, raising fears of fresh outbreaks of social unrest
>> across Asia where the grain is a staple food for more than 2.5bn people.
>> The increase came after Egypt, a leading exporter, imposed a formal
>> ban on selling rice abroad to keep local prices down, and the
>> Philippines announced plans for a major purchase of the grain in the
>> international market to boost supplies. Global rice stocks are at
>> their lowest since 1976.
>>     
>
>
> It seems there are riots around the world because of rising 
> prices. An Egyptian daily newspaper reports that 12,000 
> people have been arrested for selling flour on 
> the black market. Rice prices, meanwhile, rocketed 
> from just over $200 per ton last October to $430 
> at the end of March. The government responded on April 1 
> by suspending rice exports for six months.
>   
All the "softs" are pretty much doing the same thing.  Wheat is out of 
sight.  Oil/energy cost in the food production cycle are a large part of 
it.  In the case of corn the idiotic push by the US government to make 
it a source of fuel did not help.  A lot of extra planting of corn 
occurred that in some cases resulted in less of other crops.   Real 
inflation of the money supply and loosening of critical interest rates 
play a large role.

This is a pretty scary development although not entirely unexpected.  
Check your grocery bills and if you are diligent compare them to what 
you paid a year ago.   It is not just an effect elsewhere. 

- samantha