UAE and other Gulf countries are facing a surge in the prices of rice due to a supply shortage owing to India's ban on export of non-basmati rice varieties in March this year.
The shortage of rice has led to a food crisis in the UAE, where inflation has climbed above 11 per cent, media reports said.
India had, in March this year, banned export of non-basmati rice to check rising prices of the food grain.
"The feedback from the market says that the stock (of Indian non-basmati rice) will not go longer than a week or 10 days," a spokesperson for Emke Group, which operates Lulu Hypermarkets, was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.
A section of local food traders, however, said that plenty of rice is available in the UAE, quashing rumours of a black market and rice shortages.
"There's no such thing as a black market. It's the government that isn't willing to come forward and remove the ban. They have got used to the fact that it's not Dubai traders, it's a worldwide phenomenon," a representative of Dubai's Foodstuff Trading Group said.
Last year, the UAE imported about 750,000 tonnes of rice, mainly from India, Pakistan, Thailand and Egypt.
The Emirates Society for Consumer Protection has urged the government to subsidise basic food items to curb food prices, which are expected to hit 40 per cent this year.
