U.S. Consumers Fear Rice Shortage

Costco and Sam's Club Limit Rice Purchases

GLOBAL RICE SHORTAGE TRIGGERS FEARS IN U.S.

U.S. Consumers Fear Rice Shortage

Date: April 24, 2008

San Jose, CA
United States of America

U.S. consumers fearing potential rice shortages worldwide are clamoring to stores to stockpile this staple item. In reaction to this trend, two of the largest big box stores in the U.S., Costco and Sam's Club are putting limits on the amount of rice that can be purchased by an individual member.

MINIMIZE RICE HOARDING
To prevent panicky U.S. customers in fear of a rice shortage from completely depleting their inventory, Costco is limiting rice purchases to the amount previously purchased by a customer by looking at their previous buying history which is stored in conjunction with their membership card. Sam's Club in an article on Yahoo.com "Sam's Club, Costco limit rice purchases as prices rise" reports customers can only buy four 20-pound bags of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rice.

WHY DO U.S. CONSUMERS FEAR A RICE SHORTAGE?
"Rising fuel prices, drought" and "more demand for food in China and India and other emerging nations" combined with the "trend of using crops for biofuel rather than food" have continued to escalate prices of staple grains such as rice, wheat and corn according to an article in MercuryNews.com. Rice costs three times as much as before as reported in "Global rice shortage hits wallets in Silicon Valley" by MercuryNews.com. In this same article, an expert at the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports Vietnam and India are imposing restrictions and even bans on rice exports.