The price of rice, the staple food for half the world, may advance as wheat’s rally drives consumers to seek alternatives, according to Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute. “Rice typically tracks wheat increases,” Zeigler said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. “Wheat prices started to spike in last July, and rice prices followed them up,” Zeigler said, describing it as a “follow-on effect.”
Wheat climbed to the highest level in more than two years this week on concern drought in China may curb output, boosting competition for dwindling global supplies. The world’s neediest people are most affected by food costs, which reached a record last month, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said yesterday.
“We’re dealing with staple foods here and a price rise in one should lead to some degree of substitution towards another,” Michael Creed, an agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne, said today. “There’s good reason to be bullish about rice prices.” (more)
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