ABSTRACT
The rice price spike in the first five months of 2008, which resulted in panic and food riots in many poor countries, was triggered by the export bans of two major rice-exporting countries (India and Viet Nam) and aggravated by the Philippines’ buying behaviour (Dawe and Slayton, Chapter 2, this book). Since Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, did not impose any export restrictions, its rice exports surged to record levels of more than 0.9 million tons per month for the first seven months of 2008.
