By Siddhartha Dubey
LONDON, April 29 (Reuters Life!) - Chef Azmal Hussain serves his piping hot signature meal -- 'Chicken a la Hussain' -- and tells customers they must savour every grain of precious rice.
"It's the most expensive dish on the menu," Hussain jokes.
But the steep rise in rice prices has not been a laughing matter for the Bangladesh-born restaurateur.
He's had to raise his own prices for the first time in the nine years since he opened his doors to the legions of Londoners who love the spicy south Asian food most Britons call "curry".
"Three months ago we were paying for a 20 kg bag of Basmati rice 14.99 pounds ($29.73)," Hussain said. "Now we are paying 24.99. Still they are saying it will go up more and more."
Last week U.S. rice futures on the Chicago Board of Trade hit a life-time high above $25. In Thailand, rice surged to $1,000 a tonne on April 24.
Export curbs by some of the world's biggest rice producers, spiralling energy costs and growing demands from emerging economies such as China and India are fuelling concerns that there is not enough food to go around.
Last October India, the world's second largest rice exporter after Thailand, banned exports of non-Basmati rice to reign in prices and control inflation. Two months ago New Delhi reinforced those bans as inflation hit a 14-month high.
Among others who have imposed their own export controls have been Egypt and Vietnam, which is the world's third largest rice producer. Battling with its own inflation issues, Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest rice consumer, said it would curb medium-grade rice exports.
Alex Waugh, director of Britain's Rice Association said a lot is riding on this year's rice harvest.
"In my opinion and in the view of most in the grain trade, we are not going to see prices collapse back to the level they were," Waugh said.
He said that the increases have also been fuelled by the growing global population.
"We have 80 million new mouths to feed every year, which is the equivalent of Germany," Waugh said.
Meanwhile, among the curry joints of London's Brick Lane, Hussain insists he'll never compromise on quality and intends to keep serving his clients top grade Basmati rice.
But the skyrocketing prices of his most basic ingredient combined with expected lean times in London's nearby financial district, due to the recent credit crisis in the markets, has prompted the restaurateur to close one of his four restaurants.
"The credit crunch and the food crunch makes my profit margins less," he said. "One way or the other, if you cannot survive then you have to close the restaurant."
The restaurant in question is Jeet which is around the corner from Hussain's flagship Preem, well known by many Londoners who flock to this ethnically diverse part of the city where road signs and names on public buildings are written in English and Bengali.
A lot of the curry traffic comes from tourists and Hussain is looking forward to feeding more of them his scorching hot dishes in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics.
While the Olympics might become a future saviour of sorts for London's curry trade, Hussain is already working on a post-Olympic plan which involves building a hotel in Brick Lane.
His hotel will have a fast food court that specialises in fixed priced South Asian meals. But rice prices mean that he is unlikely to pose a threat to global fastfood chains like McDonald's, which sells the "Chicken Legend" meal for 4.49 pounds.
"McDonald's can survive for 4.50 (pounds) and I was thinking I could survive with the same standard. But now I have to re-think." ($1=.5042 Pound)
