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Calif. Store Asks Customers To Limit Rice Purchases
SAN FRANCISCO -- The price of a food staple -- rice -- has increased dramatically in recent weeks due to crop failure overseas and resulting hoarding, NBC reported, and in the Bay area, one Costco store is asking customers to limit their rice purchases.
Images: Skyrocketing Prices
The price increases are just one among many, despite the U.S. Department of Agriculture's forecast that food prices would rise 3.5 to 4.5 percent in 2008. Most of the price spikes can be traced to rising energy costs and the falling purchasing power of the U.S. dollar.
Rice, however, is a special case. The rice price increase is a result of a domino effect. Drought in Australia led to a severe decline in rice production, that in turn led the world's largest rice exporters to restrict exports. That spurred higher rice prices and hoarding in Asian countries.
Now, in the United States, rice prices have skyrocketed.
At least one California store is asking customers to hold back on their rice purchases. A Costco in the Bay Area has posted signs asking customers to follow their regular rice-buying habits.
Son Tran, who owns Le Cheval Vietnamese Restaurant in Oakland, said he has seen the price of rice go from $20 to $40 in a matter of weeks. And, he said, his restaurant's stockpiles are dwindling. Add to that the fact the price of some vegetables has gone up 50 percent and also that some of Tran's regular customers aren't so regular anymore. The empty tables are a new and troubling trend.
Rice isn't the only food in short supply. The unleavened bread snack matzo, popular with Jewish families during Passover, is also hard to find.