Rice price rise hots up curry cost 13 February 2008 05:42:15
The price of the nation's favourite dish - the curry - looks set to rise due to massive increases in world rice prices, an industry spokesman has warned.
Alex Waugh, director of the Rice Association, said prices were up 60% year-on-year and the price of basmati rice, one of the most popular varieties in the UK, had almost doubled.
Big producers like India and China have restricted their exports, along with Vietnam and Egypt, and there were now "rapidly declining stocks" in the world. Thailand and the US were now the main suppliers to the world market, he said.
This would feed into the price British consumers pay for rice at shops and in restaurants. Mr Waugh said: "If you are a restaurant owner and you are buying a lot of rice you either reduce your margins or you put your prices up.
"A cost increase of that magnitude is going to feed through and this will probably see the price of a curry increase."
Mr Waugh also warned that the price rises would hit the Bangladeshi community in the UK as rice is a staple part of the diet.
The doubling of basmati prices and the sharp rises for other varieties comes on the back of increased inflation figures.
Mr Waugh said: "The big producers like China and India have restricted their exports so that price rises don't hit their own people so much.
"Now the main countries exporting rice are really just the US and Thailand and we have seen rapidly declining stocks over the last few years."
The UK imports around 200,000 tonnes of rice every year and is the largest importer of rice in the EU. Its imports account for 20% of all EU rice imports and half of all EU basmati rice imports.
