India’s rice export curbs trigger panic buying among NRIs in US | India News – Times of India

VIJAYAWADA: India’s decision to ban export of non-Basmati rice varieties has led to panic in the Telugu community in North America, Europe and West Asia over possible shortage of rice. This has led to long queues outside Indian grocery stores.

NRIs were seen taking home dozens of rice bags fearing shortage in the coming months. In some places, a bag of 9kg rice is sold at $27.
Serpentine queues were seen at prominent Indian stores in major cities of Texas, Michigan and New Jersey where Telugu population is concentrated. Flooded with customers asking for only rice, Indian stores even put up restrictions on sales saying only one rice bag per customer would be sold.

The situation is slightly better in Alabama and Illinois. Snigdha Gudavalli from Denton city of Texas said they had to wait for over 30 minutes in the queue only to get into the store. “By the time we entered, Sona Mahsuri was sold out and we purchased Ponni boiled variety,” she said.
Krishna Mohan S from Detroit faced a similar situation. He said the reason for panic could be twofold. One, there might be a shortage or no supply of fine variety rice like Sona Mahsuri and there is every possibility of jacking up of prices. “We have witnessed prices skyrocketing during the pandemic. With that precedent, people are rushing to stash rice in advance,” he said.
Jayanth Reddy Mettu, who runs a restaurant in Dublin, Ireland, told TOI that there was no mad rush either in the UK or in Ireland. However, the Telugu people are worried about a possible hike in prices in the next few months.
S Ramakrishna Prasad from Dubai also observed that there was no shortage of supplies of Sona Mahsuri as yet. However, the major concern now is there could be a further jump in prices of rice which are already on the higher side since Covid-19.