The soaring price of rice has triggered a supply and demand crunch that is hurting some of Asia's neediest nations, forcing them to spend more on imports, industry experts and officials say.
For the likes of Thailand and Vietnam, the world's two biggest exporters of the grain, the rising demand is a money-spinner with rice now selling at more than US$500 a tonne in Bangkok and nearly as much in Hanoi.
But from Bangladesh to the Philippines, from India to Indonesia, the squeeze is bad news as they seek to balance cost with the imperatives of feeding hungry populations and averting social chaos.
PHOTO: AP
"Every Asian government is well aware of the close relationship between political stability and the stability of the rice price," said Jonathan Pincus, the UN Development Programme's chief economist in Vietnam.
"So every government in the region will be doing all it can to maintain price stability, particularly for basic food grains," he said.
At the end of last month, Thailand's benchmark rice was trading at more than US$500 a tonne, a rise of more than US$100 from a month earlier and up from just US$325 a year ago.
Exporters in Vietnam meanwhile were setting prices at US$460 a tonne last month, the state news agency VNA said -- up more than 50 percent from a year ago.
"It's a global issue. All cereal prices are going up," said Andrew Speedy, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's Vietnam representative. "This is quite serious. It's hurting everybody, especially the poor."
In the first two months of this year, Vietnam's rice exports brought in US$150 million , an increase of 78 percent from a year ago.
Much of the output is destined for the Philippines, whose President Gloria Arroyo asked Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last month to guarantee stable supplies.
Unable to meet its own needs, the Philippines will import up to 2 million tonnes of rice this year, the government said.
Last year its harvest was 6.44 million tonnes, National Food Authority spokesman Emmanuel Salonga said, but it needs 11.8 million a year.
"Our population is growing and arable land is being converted to other uses so we cannot cope with demand," he said.
Indonesia's rice production has been outpaced by its population growth for more than a decade, said Mangara Tambunan from the country's Center for Economics and Social Studies.
"The government has to open the door to more imports. It should not be so reticent," he said.
Last year, Indonesia imported 1.5 million tonnes.
To ensure stability, a government agency buys and releases stocks and sets import duties. Heavily subsidized rice is also sold to millions of the poorest families, yet even those prices are rising.
"They're trying to get producers to sign long-term contracts," Pincus said, referring to Indonesia and the Philippines.
In Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, the price of rice has doubled in a year, vastly outpacing income levels, said Ruhul Amin, deputy head of the government's food planning unit.
"People are cutting all their other spending to focus only on food," Amin said.
But with 40 percent of the population relying on US$1 a day or less, the poorest are struggling to survive.
"They have to survive on a pittance, and the rises are causing a general feeling of gloom and depression," he said.
This year Bangladesh will need to import some 3 million tonnes due to damage caused by floods in the middle of last year and November's devastating cyclone.
Some of that is coming from neighboring India, but otherwise New Delhi has halted exports of non-basmati rice to keep its own domestic prices in check.
India allowed the export of 3.2 million tonnes of non-basmati rice in the first half of the current financial year, but since October no new contracts have been signed.
The move has upset the All India Rice Exporters' Association.
"Farmers react to high prices by producing more," said its president, Vijay Sethia. "Restricting trade just distorts the price signal."
For now, some nations appear insulated against rising prices. China, Japan and South Korea are largely self-sufficient and protect their rice sectors via steep import tariffs or heavy subsidies.
In Japan, the price of high-quality rice is even waning with falling demand as younger Japanese turn to bread and Western-style dishes.
As for China, its severe cold snap earlier this year is unlikely to impact production much as it was not the planting season.
The freeze may drive up prices, said Feng Lichen, a trader at the Dalian Commodity Exchange.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better