Rice scarcity

Rice scarcity

The drought has struck again and reports on scarcity of rice in various regions are in the news. This has triggered a price hike of rice, ranging from 30 to 100 percent in the affected areas.

It is not clear whether the rice shortage is caused by the spell of drought or by the speculators' ruling. Bulog's Chief has assured that rice stock is sufficient, so why this shortage?

It seems that reports on drought have lured the speculators to pile up rice for future sale, as they predict there will be a long spell of drought this year.

Whatever the cause of the rice scarcity is the public will suffer the consequences. That's why the Logistics Agency is quite correct to launch market operations in a number of rice production centers. These operations, however, have yet to produced noticeable results. But as a psychological tactic to crush speculators plans the government's measure is commendably effective.

-- Republika, Jakarta