So it didn't faze you when Costco and Sam’s Club slapped a four-bag limit on 20-pound bags of rice last month.

But in Asia, where the majority of peoples’ diets consist of rice, and where over 1.7 billion people live on less than $2.00 a day, the rapid doubling in rice prices over the past six months has been devastating.

(A brief review of why food prices are rising: Increased demand for food from developing countries, droughts and floods in Australia and Asia, and conversion of agricultural land for biofuels – 25% of agricultural land was converted to biofuels last year in the U.S. alone.)

Fearing inability to feed their own citizens, many Asian countries, including India, have all but banned rice exports. In an attempt to regain control of rice supplies, some of the countries - namely Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar so far - are holding talks on how to start up a rice cartel.

The rice cartel idea was proposed by Dhanin Chearavanon - Chairman of CP, leading poultry producer in the region, and the 317th richest man in the world - to the Prime Minister of Thailand. (Hmm...he does need a lot of grain to feed those chickens and ducks.)

Officials from the OREC (yup, like OPEC, but with rice) countries have been careful to point out that the purpose of the organization would be to share marketing and production techniques to help ensure global food supplies, not limit them. 

Via The Nation (Bangkok)

Photo from Giles Orr

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.