Panic Rice Buying Spreads Across US - A Warning To How Quickly Things Can Turn

Rice is one of the most important staple foods for more than 3 billion people around the world, and the nation of India accounts for approximately 40 percent of all global rice exports.  So if India decides to start placing restrictions on rice exports, that is a really big deal. 

Unfortunately, that is precisely what just happened on July 20th.  Less than a week ago, India "banned the export of non-basmati white rice", and that has created a tremendous wave of panic all over the planet...

 

The Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry on July 20 banned the export of non-basmati white rice, with immediate effect, to stabilise the volatile retail prices in the country. Rice production has taken a hit owing to vagaries of weather such as heavy monsoon rains in rice-producing States in the north and deficit rainfall in other parts of the country.

Non-basmati rice is by far the most common rice used in Asian and Mexican cuisine.

Normally, an enormous amount of non-basmati rice is exported from India to the United States, but very unusual weather patterns have been devastating crops in key rice-producing areas of India...

But heavy rain in the north of India over the last few weeks has damaged newly-planted crops in Punjab and Haryana states.

Paddy fields have been submerged for over a week, destroying seedlings, and forcing farmers to wait before they can replant the rice seeds. READ MORE