Both producers and importers of rice in Asia are continuing to feel the pinch of the rise in rice prices amid inflation that has been climbing in many countries over the last four months.

The average export price of rice has nearly doubled to $585 per metric ton today, compared to $326 in 2007, according to the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute. The export price of rice from Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, more than doubled from $376 a ton in January 2008 to $907 per ton in May.

Prices are expected to stay high in the near future, making Asians nervous because what used to be an affordable staple has become an expensive item.

This is also happening at a time of rising inflation, which has economists in the region worried. Vietnam’s monthly inflation rate is the highest at 26.8 percent, while Singapore saw the largest jump in inflation rate from 0.5 percent in 2007 to 7.5 percent now, according to the Asian Development Bank.

Current rice prices “are too high for the shortage,” said Concepcion Calpe, a senior economist for the Rome-based United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, in an e-mail interview. Prices are expected to loosen, however, with the arrival of new stocks around October and November.

This is not the first time there is a global food shortage, the economist said, recalling that there was a more serious one in the mid-1970s. But it is not just a matter of supply and demand. The jitters in the region—and beyond—are also due to other factors such as the strength of the U.S. dollar, as well as the condition of the wheat market.

Meantime, Asian countries are coping in different ways. Being at the receiving end of the rice chain, rice-importing countries are the most vulnerable to rising prices, as well as stock shortages. Singapore’s senior minister of state for trade and industry, S. Iswaran, said the country’s move to build up reserves “will also help ensure Singapore has a slightly bigger buffer stock of rice than at present, so as to cushion us even more against any future supply shock.”

Some governments, like Malaysia’s, have had to make unpopular decisions and cut subsidies—introduced to help citizens cope—because the costs were simply too high.

Rice woes have forced the Philippine government to sit up and plan, once again, to attain rice self-sufficiency by 2010. This concept is not foreign because, as agriculture secretary Arthur Yap said, “self-sufficiency in rice, after all, is not a puzzle to us Filipinos. Not so long ago, we had produced more than enough rice for ourselves—we even shared part of our produce to the world.”

Related links:

Food crisis may worsen before it gets better, UN says (FCN, 05-14-2008)

Could the global food crisis impact America? (FCN, 04-30-2008)