My Way of Thinking About the Price of Rice
Nowadays, the west is consuming more and more of the stuff, what with all our 'healthy' eating, takeaways, penchant for foreign foods and, lest we forget, shelf-life of dried products that can be stored for lengthy periods of time in a bid to beat inflation and save us all some money.
Then we still have the pet trade, which has been (still is) diversifying at an alarming rate, choosing to include rice in many more pet food products under assorted headings, such as 'hypo-allergenic' or 'as recommended by the veterinary profession'.
Add to that the apparent increase in medical conditions such as gluten intolerance etc, etc, etc...
Rice, when we look at the overall picture and allow for things like exchange rate fluctuations, is one of the things that has been increasing in price over the past 4 years.
Increased demand might be what's pushing up the price, but all the other factors involved in the growing, harvesting, shipping, packaging and general production costs add up to a fair whack.
This time in 2007, the metric tonne price on the commodities market was sitting at around £165, but then it suddenly soared to over £500 within about 6 months of that. Since then, despite various fluctuations, it hasn't, to my knowledge, reduced price in the supermarkets.
It's now steadily climbing back up, which means the profit margins will be squeezed: shareholders don't like losing out on dividends, so the only thing left for the big supermarkets (dictators of grocery prices, in my opinion) to do will be to increase the retail prices accordingly.
At the moment, I think the import price of rice is around £390 per tonne, but it is still climbing.
If things get tough in the grocery shopping stakes, we can do many more things with rice and homegrown veg than we can with peanut butter.
NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk
Nowadays, the west is consuming more and more of the stuff, what with all our 'healthy' eating, takeaways, penchant for foreign foods and, lest we forget, shelf-life of dried products that can be stored for lengthy periods of time in a bid to beat inflation and save us all some money.
Then we still have the pet trade, which has been (still is) diversifying at an alarming rate, choosing to include rice in many more pet food products under assorted headings, such as 'hypo-allergenic' or 'as recommended by the veterinary profession'.
Add to that the apparent increase in medical conditions such as gluten intolerance etc, etc, etc...
Rice, when we look at the overall picture and allow for things like exchange rate fluctuations, is one of the things that has been increasing in price over the past 4 years.
Increased demand might be what's pushing up the price, but all the other factors involved in the growing, harvesting, shipping, packaging and general production costs add up to a fair whack.
This time in 2007, the metric tonne price on the commodities market was sitting at around £165, but then it suddenly soared to over £500 within about 6 months of that. Since then, despite various fluctuations, it hasn't, to my knowledge, reduced price in the supermarkets.
It's now steadily climbing back up, which means the profit margins will be squeezed: shareholders don't like losing out on dividends, so the only thing left for the big supermarkets (dictators of grocery prices, in my opinion) to do will be to increase the retail prices accordingly.
At the moment, I think the import price of rice is around £390 per tonne, but it is still climbing.
If things get tough in the grocery shopping stakes, we can do many more things with rice and homegrown veg than we can with peanut butter.
NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk
Thanks Nyk! Will follow this up.
ReplyDeleteVery good advice.
Sft x
We are both wheat intolerant and my OH can't eat spuds either so we eat a lot of rice. Basmati rice is our favourite; I can't bear American long grain unless it's smothered in a sauce. It's somewhere around £1.50 per kg in the supermarkets. Recently we bought a 20kg sack at a catering supplier for £23; So £1.15 per kg. We did buy a plastic box with a lid to keep it in; protecting our investment.
ReplyDeleteEven at £1.15 per kg, it's still a relatively cheap meal when you count up the servings you get from a pack. We're a bit greedy and tend to have 50g + per portion, served with whatever else we're having, but that's still relatively inexpensive.
ReplyDeleteWise decision making the most of it before the prices increase, as I'm certain they soon will. Apart from anything else, bulk buying helps cut down on the number of times you need to travel to the shops - saves on transport costs, too. :)
The way the supermarkets play with our fears is amazing. Triggering folks to buy EXACTLY what THEY want us to buy, by manipulating the news to suit them.
ReplyDeleteIt's the farmers and the ordinary folk that lose out every time.
Sue xx