While low-quality Iranian rice is sold at 25,000 rials, consumers have to pay more than 40,000 rials for high quality rice.

Unprecedented hike in the price of rice has become a subject of grave concern, as the cereal forms the Iranians’ staple diet and the hike is making a big hole in the family basket.
The Central Bank of Iran announced recently that the price of rice has increased by 10 percent. While low-quality Iranian rice is sold at 25,000 rials, consumers have to pay more than 40,000 rials for high quality rice.
Experts and officials consider the unprecedented cold of last winter and drought in many provinces as one of the reasons behind the price hike.
Although the rise in prices of essential commodities, especially rice, is not limited to Iran and has become a global concern, this should not give officials any excuse for failing to predict such a situation.
Iranian lawmakers recently questioned officials about the price hike and initiated a motion to impeach Commerce Minister Massoud Mir-Kazemi.
According to Mehr News Agency, Majlis Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel said on Tuesday the government should adopt extensive measures for confronting the drought and its impact.
“Last week when I was browsing through the written notifications of legislators to executive officials, I realized that them every day a number of them pertained to people who suffered losses in the wake of the cold weather or drought É Some farmers have come to see me in person and complained about the destruction of their farms and gardens,“ he said.
The speaker urged the people to economize in their use of food, water and electricity.
“The government should manage the crisis. As far as I know, a central headquarters comprising ministers and related officials has been established within the Cabinet. They have had a few meetings so far. Furthermore, in some provinces where the danger of drought is serious, special headquarters have also been established,“ he said.
Meanwhile, Gholamreza Khankeshipour, a member of State Rice Research Institute, said, “Despite the production of over two million tons of rice in the country and rice imports, some middlemen have hoarded rice which has caused an artificial increase in the price of rice. Not to mention that reduction in global rice reserves has also led to the hike in prices of foreign rice.“
The official pointed out that this year rice paddies in the north faced a 50-percent delay in plantation due to shortage of water.
Iranians expect the officials to take all measures to tackle the crisis in the shortest possible time.

The cyclone death toll soared above 22,000 on Tuesday and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country’s deadliest storm on record, state radio reported.
Up to 1 million people may be homeless after Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma, early Saturday. Some villages have been almost totally eradicated and vast rice-growing areas are wiped out, the World Food Programme said, AP reported.
Images from state television showed large trees and electricity poles sprawled across roads and roofless houses ringed by large sheets of water in the Irrawaddy River delta region, which is regarded as Myanmar’s rice bowl.
ÇFrom the reports we are getting, entire villages have been flattened and the final death toll may be huge,È Mac Pieczowski, who heads the International Organization for Migration office in Yangon, said in a statement.
Myanmar’s military government has signaled it will welcome aid supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the UN said on Tuesday, clearing the way for a major relief operation from international organizations.
But UN workers were still awaiting their visas to enter the country, said Elisabeth Byrs of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Some aid agencies reported their assessment teams had reached some areas of the largely isolated region but said getting in supplies and large numbers of aid workers would be difficult.
The cyclone came only a week ahead of a key referendum on a constitution that Myanmar’s military leaders hoped would go smoothly in its favor, despite opposition from the country’s feisty pro-democracy movement. However, the disaster could stir the already tense political situation.