"No U.S. Rice Shortage, Period"

There is no rice shortage in the United States according to the National Farmers Union, Costco and the USA Rice Federation.

Both the National Farmers Union and Costco had representatives make statements to that affect on the Fox News Channel on Thursday.

"This temporary cap is intended to ensure there is plenty of rice for all our members," said Sam's Club, which has 600 stores across the United States, adding that the measure did not apply to smaller bags of rice.

The move follows similar steps taken by its main rival, Costco, which has also limited the sale of rice in its stores.

Both companies insist that they have plenty of rice but say the steps were necessary to ensure there was enough for all of their clients.

Costco sent a representative to Neil Cavuto’s 4 PM Eastern Time program “Your World” to blame the media for a “run on rice.”

“This is all media fueled hysteria,” he said.

Actually, the U.S. rice crop is expected to be 5% larger this year over 2007, said the National Farmers Union.

“There is no rice shortage in the US," said David Coia, a spokesman for the industry's USA Rice Federation.

"What happened is because of perception of problems in the world market, a few people try to buy more rice than they usually do, and these two companies have decided they want all their customers to be able to purchase rice."

"What happened was one person bought a three-month supply instead of a two-week supply that they normally buy," Coia told AFP.

US rice production provides 88 percent of the domestic consumption while imports from countries such as Thailand and Vietnam make up the rest.

There is an international rice shortage and inflation has doubled and even tripled rice prices in some places.

Experts believe U.S. rice prices will decline during the summer if buyers return to their normal patters and don’t over-buy or hoard rice….

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