Joe Biden has done it again.
He’s presiding over another consumer shortage of basic goods, just like he did in 2021-2022. Shoppers nationwide have yielded to panic and are rushing to panic-buy rice, following an export ban in India causing its prices to skyrocket.
Biden Once Again Unprepared
Social media videos from around the country are showing more cases of panic-buying rice at supermarkets. The price of a 20-pound bag more than tripled from $16 to $50, The Daily Mail reports.
The development occurred after India, which is responsible for 40% of global rice exports, decided to impose an export ban to keep down its domestic prices. Of course, the American people are bound to suffer from such developments.
In any case, the Indian export ban on non-basmati rice, its biggest export category of the foodstuff. This immediately caused fears of world shortages, is already hitting American consumers – and hitting them hard.
It is noted that non-basmati rice happens to be the most common type of rice used in traditional meals in the US and in Mexican and Asian recipes.
Blackmailing Consumers
According to a report by PBS Frontline, rice prices nationwide have spiked by an average of 11%.
To top it all off, the rice panic buying has allowed speculators to start coming up with various “money-making schemes” to take advantage of the situation, Business Line reports.
Thus, some grocery stores are forcing clients to spend at least $30-50 on other products in order to be allowed to buy a single bag of rice.
The Indian export ban – for which the Biden administration is completely unprepared – came after heavy rain in Northern India recently damaged newly-planted rice crops.
Because the paddy fields were under water for more than a week, farmers were forced to wait to even attempt to replant the seeds. Rice is a key food staple for over three billion people worldwide; almost 90% of it is produced in South and East Asia.
Unfortunately, the US consumer is once again bearing the brunt of Bidenomics and Biden goods shortages, in a development that might as well grow much worse.