India's ban on rice exports is causing panic-buying across the United States, as the price of a 20-pound bag of the staple grain has tripled in some grocery stores, according to the Daily Mail.
A full 40% of world rice exports come from the south Asian country, which banned exports of non-basmati rice on Thursday in a bid to stabilize domestic prices.
Social media videos from over the weekend show Indian Americans in Texas, Michigan, New Jersey, Alabama, Ohio, Illinois, and California panic-buying rice or standing in long lines. Business Line reported that some stores have inflated the price of a 20-pound bag to $46.99 and have come up with ways of capitalizing on the panic.
"A few desi grocery shops came up with innovative ideas to force customers to spend a minimum of $35-$50 on other items to purchase a single rice bag, which is outrageous," one customer told the outlet.
According to PBS Frontline, one store in Mason, Ohio, is limiting each shopper to one 20-pound bag of rice, priced at $24. The outlet also reported that rice prices in the U.S. have spiked about 11% on average.
Non-basmati rice is the most common rice called for in American, Asian, and Mexican cooking.
The ban took effect July 20 and the Indian government said that only vessels currently loading would be allowed to export the grain.
Parboiled rice, of which India exported 7.4 million tons in 2022, is not included in the ban.
A staple for more than 3 billion people, nearly 90% of the world's rice is produced in Asia, where the El Nino weather pattern usually produces favorable growing conditions.
Heavy rain in northern India over the past few weeks has damaged newly-planted rice crops in Punjab and Haryana states, however.
Rice cultivation was expected to increase after the nation's capital New Delhi raised the purchase price, but so far the area of planted rice paddies is 6% smaller this year than in 2022, according to the Mail.
"In order to ensure adequate availability of non-basmati white rice in the Indian market and to allay the rise in prices in the domestic market, the government of India has amended the export policy," the food ministry said in a statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration has also extended a ban on wheat exports after restricting rice shipments in September and curbed sugar exports as cane yields declined this year.
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