The cost of Madagascar's staple food rice has shot up almost 50 percent in a week, sparking fears of further protests in a country plagued by rampant inflation, residents and shopkeepers said on Tuesday. The latest hike - to 6,500 Malagasy Francs (Fmg) (66 US cents) a kilo from Fmg 4,500 a week ago - is being blamed on high transport costs, supply bottlenecks and storm damage.
"It is totally out of control," said Chantal Raviloarisoa, owner of a small grocer's shop in the capital Antananarivo. "There just is not enough rice to go around. Today we had to sell at 6,500 for the first time ever. Now when will this end?"
Madagascar's 17 million people, most of whom live on less than a dollar a day, consume almost 2.5 million tonnes between them every year. Its average price has surged by nearly 200 percent since January.
Hikes in the prices of basic necessities like food and fuel have sparked a number of demonstrations, some violent, in recent months as the island's poorest feel the pinch of inflation averaging at between five and six percent.
In September the government appealed for cheap rice from Thailand and Pakistan, and the imports briefly pushed the price back below its target of Fmg 3,500 per kilo last month.
But since then it has nearly doubled, and on Friday Prime Minister Jacques Sylla announced on national television that more rice was being imported from Thailand and would be capped at Fmg 3,500 per kilo.
Grocers and wholesalers will be forbidden from selling it at higher rates, mixing it with more expensive locally-grown rice, or stockpiling it to sell at a later date, he said.
Rice crops were hit hard by Cyclones Elita and Gafilo, which ripped through the Indian Ocean island in January and March.
But analysts say high prices for rice on the international market, the falling local currency and higher transport costs linked to climbing oil prices have also pushed up local rates and made life harder for the island's poorest.
"The government says they are acting to make rice cheaper, but just look at the price, nobody can afford this," said Pierre Rabemanatsoa, a 48-year-old resident of Antananarivo's Isotry slum. "Life a year ago was hard, but never this hard."