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RICHMOND, California (AP) -- Shoppers surveyed shelves loaded with rice at the Ranch 99 Asian supermarket, chatting in languages from Mandarin to Portuguese as they hunted for their favorite varieties and compared prices before heaving 50-pound (23-kilogram) bags into their carts.
Skyrocketing prices and media reports of a rice shortage are driving many people in the United States, including Asian, Hispanic, and Indian immigrants, to stock up on rice -- a once inexpensive staple that is reaching record-high prices across the country. In Indian corner markets and warehouse-sized supermarkets specializing in Asian goods, customers who usually take home a 20-pound (9-kilogram) bag are taking two, or even reaching for the 50-pound (23-kilogram) bag.
"It's all in the news, on TV and newspapers," said Grace Yap, originally of China, who was shopping at Ranch 99.
Emphasizing that there is no rice shortage in the United States, economists and commodity traders blame the price hikes confronting U.S. consumers on everything from the weather in producing countries to the increased buying power of countries such as China. Chief among those factors was the decision by India, Vietnam, China, Egypt, Cambodia and Brazil to curtail exports to protect prices at home, said Nathan Childs, an economist and rice expert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Seeking to tame rising rice prices, which have more than tripled since January, Thailand proposed an OPEC-style cartel on Friday with major rice exporters Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam to give them more control over international rice prices.
Take escalating prices, add to that news of food riots abroad, and many American buyers are choosing to be safe and purchasing more, especially since rice keeps well. That sends ripples all the way up the buying chain, said Pat Daddow, owner of the California Rice Exchange, a platform where farmers sell to processors.
"You hear prices are going up, so instead of buying one bag, you buy five," he said. "Everyone is anticipating a price rise, so they're trying to buy ahead of it. That creates a short-term rise in demand, and higher prices."
But is it hoarding? Not really, since there's no shortage, said Daddow.
"It's just rational economic behavior," he said. "If gas were going up tomorrow, wouldn't you fill up your tank?"
The stockpiling has led U.S. warehouse retail chains to limit sales of bulk imported Thai jasmine, Indian basmati and long grain white rice -- varieties not grown domestically. Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., caters to small businesses such as restaurants, and limited shoppers to four 20-pound (9-kilogram) bags each.
Whatever experts call it, shoppers are choosing to buy a little more of whatever type of rice they prefer.
"I've had to double the order," said Kirk Tamachi, the Asian food buyer for Berkeley Bowl supermarket in Berkeley, California. "We normally sell two, three (50-pound, 23-kilogram) sacks a day of the different varieties we have, but we got wiped out."
Grocery stores in Flushing, Queens, home to one of New York's three bustling Chinatowns, also have seen a spike in rice sales along with prices
Helen Suen, Hing Long Supermarket's accountant, has produced invoices documenting the store's rising rice costs. At the beginning of the year, she bought jasmine rice through a wholesaler. Each 25-pound (11-kilogram) bag was $11 (euro7.12), which the store sold for $13 (euro8.41). Today, Hing Long pays $17 (euro11) per bag and charges $20 (euro12.94).
If the trend continues, Suen thinks it will eventually cause panic among her customers.
Peter Wong, who's in charge of the rice at Hong Kong Super Market in Queens, said he's seen his sales increase by 40 percent. But he didn't think there was a risk that his customers would stop buying jasmine rice, even as it topped $19 (euro12.29) for a 25-pound (11-kilogram) bag.
"The Chinese eat rice," he said with a smile. "They have no choice."
U.S. farmers are also filling in demand usually met by their competitors abroad. California farmers, for example, will be selling more to Turkey, now that Egypt pulled out of the export market.
Long grain rice grown in the southern United States went from $397 per ton in April 2007 to $794 (euro513.65) a year later. The medium-grain rice grown in California went from $551 per ton to $750 (euro485.19) per ton in the same period.
But it's the imported rices not grown in the United States -- the basmati or jasmine preferred by Southeast Asians, Indians, Filipinos and many Chinese -- that are in the greatest demand and going for the highest prices.
"People are so worried, everything is going up so much. It's so crazy," said Mahinder Parmar, owner of Milan, a Berkeley, California store selling everything from Indian music to sweets, instruments and spices.
Walking over to a wall lined with bags of rice, many of them holding varieties grown only in India, he punches a bag of Surti Kolam. It's had been marked up from $12.99 (euro8.40) to $21.99 (euro14.23).
"People hear what's going on, they want to come and buy 2 bags, not one," he said. "We'll sell what's in stock, and after that we don't know."
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Associated Press writers Adam Goldman and Yu Sun in New York contributed to this report.
May 02 09:01
HONOLULU (AP) -- May Day was Lei Day in Hawaii.
Volunteers hoping to set a record for the world's longest lei strung together flowers that stretched for more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki on Thursday, organizers said.
Video, photos and witness statements documenting the lei, which measured 5,336 feet (1,626 meters) in length, will be sent to Guinness World Records, organizers said.
Success seems all but certain, because organizers say there currently is not a Guinness record for the world's longest lei.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann is expected to announce within a few weeks whether the record is official.
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May 01 23:27
HONOLULU (AP) -- Taro, the crop used to make the starchy food poi, has been named the state plant of Hawaii.
Taro is a symbol of Hawaii that was set to become the state plant last year.
But lawmakers made a mistake when they initially passed the law: it wouldn't go into effect until 2025.
This year, they amended the law to make taro the state plant on July 1.
Taro joins the hibiscus as the state flower and the kukui as the state tree.
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On the Net:
SB2499: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/
May 02 02:24
By OLIVER TEVES
Associated Press Writer
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LOS BANOS, Philippines (AP) -- The Philippines has enough rice to cover this year's domestic shortfall, the agriculture chief said Friday, as the government signed an agreement with rice experts aimed at making the country self-sufficient in the staple.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said the Philippines, the world's top rice importer, has already secured 1.6 million tons of rice to make up for a 10 percent gap between domestic production and consumption.
Despite record high prices -- pushed by export curbs, hoarding and price speculation in Asia's rice producing nations -- the Philippines is seeking to buy another 675,000 tons in Monday's tender, but that would be used as a buffer stock, Yap told reporters.
The government failed to buy all the grain it sought in an April tender despite agreeing to pay 62 percent more than at a similar tender just a month ago.
The state-run grain importer, the National Food Authority, said it has so far signed contracts for about half of the 2.1 million tons of rice it plans to import this year. The price of rice from Thailand, the world's biggest exporter, topped US$1,000 (euro640) per ton this month, nearly triple the January price.
In a bid to keep the prices from rising further, Yap said the Philippines is prepared to reject any bids that are too high or unreasonable.
In Los Banos, the site of the International Rice Research Institute, which has been developing rice varieties that can withstand drought or floods to help farmers across the world, Yap signed an agreement with the institute to accelerate rice production in the country, from the current average of 3.5 tons to 5 tons per hectare.
Robert Zeigler, director general of the institute, said the target production "would take care of the rice needs of the Philippines."
Yap, accompanied by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, told reporters he expects the Philippines to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2010 or 2011, barring bad weather.
"For 90 million Filipinos, self-sufficiency in rice is not a choice but an imperative," he said.
He said the plan focuses on irrigation, technology and credit support to farmers. It involves a joint breeding program to create high-yielding varieties and mapping new rice-growing areas.
Zeigler said a key component to achieving the government's target is instructing farmers in the proper use of fertilizers and pesticides and give them access to high quality seeds.
But there are challenges, including geography. The archipelago has less land suitable for rice production than many of its Asian neighbors, and is buffeted by Pacific typhoons that frequently destroy rice paddies. The rice production also has failed to keep up with a growing population, which topped 88 million last year.
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On the Net:
International Rice Research Institute: http://www.irri.org
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