The great rice crisis: Rationing at UK supermarkets as world prices soar 70 per cent

Retailers including Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Lidl have introduced quotas for the staple food, which has increased in price worldwide by 70 per cent in a year.

Shortage: Supermarkets are rationing rice after panic-buying by customers

It is believed to be the first time major stores have limited purchases of such foodstuffs since sugar and bread were restricted in the Seventies because of strikes by producers.

Netto, the Danish-owned chain with 184 UK stores, has limited its 10kg bags of rice to one per customer.

Lidl, the German-owned cut-price group with 380 British outlets, has restricted purchases to ‘family volumes’ to stop bulk-buying by traders.

Most of the limits have been introduced in areas of Leicester which have large Asian populations.

Tesco said that for two weeks its store in the Hamilton area of the city had limited customers to two packs of rice per person.

But a spokeswoman insisted: ‘There is no supply problem. Rice was restricted for a couple of weeks at one store only. No other Tesco stores have been affected.’

Customers at the Morrisons store at Freemans Park, Leicester, were being restricted to six packs of rice, regardless of size, per customer.

The Asda store at nearby Thurmaston imposed similar restrictions, but at a national level the company denied it had any rationing in place.

The run on rice supplies in the UK follows rationing imposed in the United States by Wal-Mart and its discount warehouse Sam’s Club.

America’s largest warehouse group Costco, which has outlets in Britain,  has been another chain to warn that customers are panicking about shortages of rice and flour and are buying up supplies to hoard.

The reasons for the soaring cost of rice include the rising demand in the Far East as living standards improve.

Less land is also now allocated to cultivating the crop – and there have been supply and distribution difficulties caused by bad weather.

The price of a 1kg bag of basmati rice – which is popular with curries –  has risen 27 per cent at Tesco and Asda and 39 per cent at Sainsbury’s in the past year, according to comparison website MySupermarket.co.uk.

The knock-on effect of similar rises and global concern could now lead to an increase in the cost of Indian and Chinese meals and takeaways.

Key rice producing countries have already banned exports to ensure their own people can continue to afford it.

Exports have been blocked by China, India, Vietnam and Egypt, which is increasing the uncertainty.

A British Retail Consortium spokesman said: ‘Supermarkets are aware of issues of global supply and have already taken necessary steps to ensure adequate rice supplies.

'We are confident there won’t be shortages on shelves.’