(2 minutes read)
A severe shortage of rice caused panic buying in Liberia, hundreds of desperate consumers and retailers queuing up days and nights to buy rice from the warehouses.
The country’s staple started disappearing from shops and marketplaces several weeks ago, prompting hundreds of desperate rice retailers and consumers in the capital, Monrovia, to spend days and nights in queues to scoop small quantities of the commodity from the warehouse of a foreign company that still has a small consignment. Police have been deployed to assist the company’s security, as crowds of anxious people try to force their way into its premises.
Some of them have even gone to resell the commodity at skyrocketing prices. As the crisis continues, large-scale buyers say they are being compelled by the company to also buy unrelated goods they do not need.
The shortage seems to be the worst in recent years and the tales of the visibly frustrated buyers in queues are similar. A spokesman for Fouani Brothers Corporation said a worse shortage was on the horizon and the current stock would last for about two weeks.
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President George Weah has said he does not believe that there is a rice shortage as importers had told him they had rice to last up to next year. But he said he would look into the matter and urged people not to get panicked by listening to the noise in the streets.Liberia spends about $200m (£189m) each year on importing rice.
