Source:
http://timesofindia. indiatimes. co...et_faces_food_crisis/articleshow/2973424. cms
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CALIFORNIA): Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York in areas of New England, and on the west coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks, the New York Sun reported on Monday.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, California, on Sunday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. "Where's the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, California, Yajun Liu, said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbour or a friend needs it," the elder man told the daily.
The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap. "Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.
An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and veitnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
"I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export controls on wheat," the editor of SurvivalBlog. com, James Rawles, told the paper. "The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat." Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.
"There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short," Rawles, a former army intelligence officer, said. "Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.
TOKYO: The World Trade Organization (WTO) should push food-producing countries to maintain exports to prevent a worsening of the international food crisis, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Wednesday.
Ballooning food prices have sparked riots in Bangladesh and brought down the government of Haiti, while some countries have banned exports of staple foodstuffs in an attempt to avert domestic shortages.
Prices of rice, a staple in most of Asia, have risen 68 per cent since the start of 2008. US rice futures rose to an all-time high on Wednesday.
"If we restrict trade, we're simply going to add food scarcity to the already large problems of food shortages that exist in different countries," Mandelson said in an interview during a visit to Tokyo with an EU delegation.
"The WTO stands for free trade. It needs to exert its pressure and influence to reduce tariffs and thereby encourage trade," he added.
"It's also got to stand up against export restrictions, export taxes, which too will stop the free flow of trade in foodstuffs and agricultural produce.
Mandelson's comments came a day after a concerned Japan, which relies on imports for much of its food, said it would propose the WTO set clear rules on food export restrictions.
Trade bans on rice have been put in place by India, the world's second largest exporter in 2007, and Vietnam, the third biggest, in the hopes of cooling domestic prices of the staple food.
The export curbs have been criticised by the Asian Development Bank, which said Asian governments were over-reacting to surging food prices by resorting to market-distorting measures.
In Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, farmers have planted a rare third crop and are expected to reap another 1.6 million tonnes of rice paddy this year. An incomplete 500,000 tonne tender by Manila last week has reinforced a perception in the Thai rice industry that demand is far outstripping supply, suggesting prices are set to continue the unprecedented surge of the last four months, exporters said.
Mandelson said concerns over food and global financial turmoil were spurring progress towards an agreement on the Doha round of WTO negotiations, which aims to forge a deal to liberalise world trade.
The next ministerial meeting on the Doha round may be held in late May or June, after speculation it could be in the week of May 19, Kyodo news agency quoted Mandelson as saying on Tuesday.
European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday expressed "strong concern" about rising food and fuel prices and agreed on the urgent need to address the issue, especially in developing countries.
Mandelson and other European Commission officials leave Japan on Thursday for China, hoping to resolve disagreements over climate change and trade.
http://timesofindia. indiatimes. co...et_faces_food_crisis/articleshow/2973424. cms
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CALIFORNIA): Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York in areas of New England, and on the west coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks, the New York Sun reported on Monday.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, California, on Sunday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. "Where's the rice?" an engineer from Palo Alto, California, Yajun Liu, said. "You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
"You can't eat this every day. It's too heavy," a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. "We only need one bag but I'm getting two in case a neighbour or a friend needs it," the elder man told the daily.
The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap. "Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history," a sign above the dwindling supply said.
An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and veitnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
"I'm surprised the Bush administration hasn't slapped export controls on wheat," the editor of SurvivalBlog. com, James Rawles, told the paper. "The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat." Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.
"There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don't realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short," Rawles, a former army intelligence officer, said. "Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.
TOKYO: The World Trade Organization (WTO) should push food-producing countries to maintain exports to prevent a worsening of the international food crisis, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said on Wednesday.
Ballooning food prices have sparked riots in Bangladesh and brought down the government of Haiti, while some countries have banned exports of staple foodstuffs in an attempt to avert domestic shortages.
Prices of rice, a staple in most of Asia, have risen 68 per cent since the start of 2008. US rice futures rose to an all-time high on Wednesday.
"If we restrict trade, we're simply going to add food scarcity to the already large problems of food shortages that exist in different countries," Mandelson said in an interview during a visit to Tokyo with an EU delegation.
"The WTO stands for free trade. It needs to exert its pressure and influence to reduce tariffs and thereby encourage trade," he added.
"It's also got to stand up against export restrictions, export taxes, which too will stop the free flow of trade in foodstuffs and agricultural produce.
Mandelson's comments came a day after a concerned Japan, which relies on imports for much of its food, said it would propose the WTO set clear rules on food export restrictions.
Trade bans on rice have been put in place by India, the world's second largest exporter in 2007, and Vietnam, the third biggest, in the hopes of cooling domestic prices of the staple food.
The export curbs have been criticised by the Asian Development Bank, which said Asian governments were over-reacting to surging food prices by resorting to market-distorting measures.
In Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, farmers have planted a rare third crop and are expected to reap another 1.6 million tonnes of rice paddy this year. An incomplete 500,000 tonne tender by Manila last week has reinforced a perception in the Thai rice industry that demand is far outstripping supply, suggesting prices are set to continue the unprecedented surge of the last four months, exporters said.
Mandelson said concerns over food and global financial turmoil were spurring progress towards an agreement on the Doha round of WTO negotiations, which aims to forge a deal to liberalise world trade.
The next ministerial meeting on the Doha round may be held in late May or June, after speculation it could be in the week of May 19, Kyodo news agency quoted Mandelson as saying on Tuesday.
European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday expressed "strong concern" about rising food and fuel prices and agreed on the urgent need to address the issue, especially in developing countries.
Mandelson and other European Commission officials leave Japan on Thursday for China, hoping to resolve disagreements over climate change and trade.
The CIBC is predicting that gas prices will hit $2.25 a litre by 2012. Just imagine the cost of everything then.
