P-rice-s rattle restauranteurs

Any big increase in the price of rice causes real problems for poor families in countries where it's the staple food. But here in the UK higher rice costs don't really mean you'll struggle to feed your children.

Though if rice is a major part of your business then price hikes can seriously dent your bottom line.

Nahim Aslam's company is having to find an extra £140 every week just to buy rice now prices have risen.

They get through sack-loads at his Indian restaurant in Ashton-under-Lyne and over the course of the year he's looking at a total loss of around £7,000 since prices on the world market soared.

So why doesn't he just pass it on to his customers who're hardly going to complain at a serving of boiled rice going up from, say, £1.50 to £2?

His answer is simple. It would mean having to pay designers and printers to produce a new menu, which in itself would cost a small fortune.

So he's stuck, absorbing the cost himself.

Declining stocks

Greater Manchester's Chamber of Commerce says some restaurant owners on the city's "Curry Mile" are so worried at the rising cost of produce - for example cooking oil and lentils have both gone up too - that there are fears staff may have to be laid off.

The UK imports 400,000 tonnes of rice every year according to The Rice Association, a trade body representing British importers and millers.

Forty percent of it is basmati rice from Pakistan and India. And the association's director, Alex Waugh, says its cost has leapt by 120% in the last year.

"Supply has not kept pace with the demand for rice, which has gone up as populations increase.

"So over the last five years there's been a steep decline in stocks. Before, some 35% of annual supply would come from reserves. Now that figure's just 15%."

But the economic crunch in rice prices is also a result of social changes.

"Basmati rice used to be essentially an export commodity in India," he says. "But the growing middle class there now wants to buy it too, as it's a higher quality grain."

Rises in the price of rice don't affect the majority of consumers in the UK, as much as rises in the price of staples such as wheat do.

Although there are significant communities - South Asian, Chinese and others - for whom it is a problem.

For families, the grocery bills are getting bigger at home. And for those in the restaurant or take-away trade, profits are being squeezed.

Source : BBC News