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For example here, a large rice "manufacturer" (distributor?) at normal times has pre-orders from asia for deliveries 3 months in advance for typical amounts tha
by megous 7y ago
For example here, a large rice "manufacturer" (distributor?) at normal times has pre-orders from asia for deliveries 3 months in advance for typical amounts that are sold. If people start buying at 5-10x the normal rate, it will deplete the current stock quickly and it will take time to ramp up the deliveries and packaging. Also intermediate storage facilities and silos/packaging lines are not inflatable. So it's not all that easy to ramp up distribution 3x.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> a large rice "manufacturer" (distributor?) Both concepts would seem to apply, and to be different people, but a rice manufacturer would usually be called a farmer.
- lonelappde 7y agoMost rice farmers don't order their rice delivered from a different continent.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoWell, they might, but they wouldn't be reselling rice they'd ordered. That would tend to defeat the idea of making your own rice. More relevantly, it's not at all implausible for a farming operation to be selling rice on another continent, and to schedule shipments several months in advance.
- rsynnott 7y agoEh, nearly all rice that people buy is post-processed to various degrees (brown rice has the outer husk removed, white rice also has an inner layer removed), so manufacturing capacity is also a real concern.
- ClumsyPilot 7y agoIn most if the world there had been a reduction in grain storage capacity, and may stores were knocked down and repurposed. We optimised into 'Just-in-time' supply chain so hard, there is no slack in the system to handle a crysis, it's too fragile.