HONG Kong rice prices may surge 30 percent in the next two months, an industry body said, as shoppers emptied supermarket shelves of the grain.
The price of imported rice from Thailand has already risen as much as 20 percent since January, said Lee Kwong-lam, president of Hong Kong and Kowloon Vermicelli and Noodle Manufacturing Industry Merchants.
According to Bloomberg News, Lee said prices are likely to jump a further 30 percent by June.
"To be short of money is one thing, but running short of rice is a big deal for the Chinese," said Chip Tsao, a Hong Kong commentator and radio talk-show host.
Consumers are beginning to feel the impact of surging food costs after global rice prices almost doubled in the past year. Exporters such as China's mainland, India and Vietnam are keeping more of their crops at home to help tame inflation.
"I'm afraid there won't be any rice to eat," Ms Fung, a 32-year-old restaurant worker who declined to give her full name, said as she looked at empty shelves in a Wellcome supermarket in the Kowloon area. "I'd bought two bags before work. I wanted two more. Everyone is acting crazy - like they're starving."
The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region moved this week to reassure its seven million people that rice stocks were sufficient.
Prices of non-staple items such as pork and eggs have also surged, driving inflation to 6.3 percent in February, the fastest pace in more than a decade. Food accounted for almost half of that, according to government data.
"There is no need for the public to worry," the Trade and Industry Department said in a statement late on Monday.
Rice suppliers are obliged to maintain 15 days of stocks in their warehouses and release these to stem any shortage, it said. "Hong Kong people won't starve, they'll just have to pay more," said Anthony Lam, an operations director at rice trader Golden Resources Development International Ltd.
More than 90 percent of Hong Kong's rice imports come from Thailand, the world's biggest exporter, government figures show.