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