Rice Run Prompts Curbs to Rival Credit Market Seizure

[swag]

Source: Bloomberg

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- From Cairo to New Delhi to Shanghai, the run on rice is threatening to disrupt worldwide food supplies as much as the scarcity of confidence on Wall Street earlier this year roiled credit markets.

China, Egypt, Vietnam and India, representing more than a third of global rice exports, curbed sales this year, and Indonesia says it may do the same. Investigators in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer, raided warehouses last month to crack down on hoarding. The World Bank in Washington says 33 nations from Mexico to Yemen may face ``social unrest'' after food and energy costs increased for six straight years.

Rice, the staple food for half the world, rose 2.4 percent to a record $20.985 per 100 pounds in Chicago today, double the price a year ago and a fivefold increase from 2001. It may reach $22 by November, said Dennis DeLaughter, owner of Progressive Farm Marketing in Edna, Texas.

``Rice will gain substantially over the next two years,'' said Roland Jansen, chief executive officer of Pfaffikon, Switzerland-based Mother Earth Investments AG, which holds 4 percent of its $100 million funds in the grain. Governments will likely maintain curbs on exports ``because those countries want to be able to continue to feed their own populations,'' he said.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0fU0S8MSK64&refer=home

[GoesTo11]

1. Tricky

I saw the headline and figured there was some plan to contain the mortgage mess to help Condi's VP hopes. Was that the idea?

[swag]

4. Dunno. Bloomberh has terrible headline writers.

[sam sarrha]

2. read the "Shock Doctrine:the rise of disaster capitalism" by Naomi Klein

[swag]

5. or maybe "The Omnivore's Dilemma" br Michael Pollan.

[izquierdista]

7. This is one shock that will backfire

Hungry people are not dazed to the point that disaster capitalists can swoop in. They do things like storm the Bastille and behead the King, storm the Winter Palace and exile the czar to Siberia, drive the Kuomintang to Taiwan and proclaim a People's Republic, that sort of stuff. Read a little history and you will find out that hunger is the limit where the common folk push back.

[mainegreen]

3. Where can I buy 100 lbs of rice for 20 bucks?

Let me know and I'm there.

[izquierdista]

8. Asian grocery stores

But you have to buy it in the big 50 pound sacks.

[madrchsod]

6. the kids have to make money somehow

gold and oil are played out ...hmmm lets run-up the commodities market! thar`s gold in them bins!