If you are a frequent visitor to the grocery store you would have noticed the steep rise in prices of goods, especially Indian goods such as dal and rice. It's amazing how quickly the prices have risen. Rice which was being sold for $8 is now $30 within a matter of 7 days. And same for dal. As usual many people have started panicking and they are stocking up on rice from all possible sources. Costco and BJs have run out of rice stock. And even ordinary shops where no one used to bother buying rice from have put notices indicating one customer can take only one bag of rice. What a turn of events.
What puzzles me the most is this - did all the rice and dal just disappear on one fine day? What stopped the suppliers from rationing the supply initially itself to stop such a steep rise and subsequent stampede of customers? Isn't the supplier playing a foul game by suddenly declaring that we have been hit by a shortage? Some where there has been a black marketing of these commodities and now we are left with the shocking prices.
The funny thing is that the governments of various countries are now doing what they do best always - Playing the blame game. They are trying to figure out which country ate into the world's supply of food instead of forming a strategy to avoid further shortage.
One thing is true though. We have been neglecting farmers for a long time and slowly forcing them into extinction. Now we are paying the price and a little heavily. Let's hope this stops soon.
What puzzles me the most is this - did all the rice and dal just disappear on one fine day? What stopped the suppliers from rationing the supply initially itself to stop such a steep rise and subsequent stampede of customers? Isn't the supplier playing a foul game by suddenly declaring that we have been hit by a shortage? Some where there has been a black marketing of these commodities and now we are left with the shocking prices.
The funny thing is that the governments of various countries are now doing what they do best always - Playing the blame game. They are trying to figure out which country ate into the world's supply of food instead of forming a strategy to avoid further shortage.
One thing is true though. We have been neglecting farmers for a long time and slowly forcing them into extinction. Now we are paying the price and a little heavily. Let's hope this stops soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment