This from The New York Times:

The prime minister of Thailand, Samak Sundaravej, said Wednesday that his government would try to create a cartel of rice-producing countries in partnership with Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

“We don’t aspire to be like OPEC, but we hope to be just a group of five to help each other in trading rice on the world market,” Mr. Samak was quoted as saying in The Nation newspaper.

Meanwhile, says The Wall Street Journal, food rationing and stockpiling is continuing in the US.

Stockpiling staples such as rice, meats and canned soup is coming into vogue again as food inflation and $3.60-a-gallon gasoline have consumers cutting the frequency of shopping trips — and loading up carts when they do shop. Sometimes shoppers are prodded by fears of impending food shortages, though none have yet materialized in the US.

Jason Simpkins in Money Morning says that “the price of rice has finally started to moderate this week, with rice futures sinking for a fifth straight day. Rice has retreated 11.6% on the Chicago Board of Trade since hitting an all-time high last Thursday.

“But this decline is likely just the start for rice prices, which have been artificially inflated by government controls and may continue to plummet by as much as 20%.”

According to Reuters: “Vietnam acted to quell panic over rice supplies on Monday, banning speculation in the market after a ‘chaotic’ buying binge in the Southeast Asian nation highlighted growing global fears about food security.

The move comes as protests spread through Africa over rising food prices, which aid experts have warned threaten to starve 100 people.
Rising food and grain prices have also caused thousands of investors to turn to the internet to search for an ETF for rice or a broader commodity ETF.

“Commodities, and soft agricultural commodities in particular, are not tied to stocks, bonds or currencies,” says The Sovereign Society’s Eric Roseman. “They’re not correlated to any of these markets directly. Therefore commodities provide a critical asset-allocation diversification strategy to traditional portfolios.

“Commodities feed on easy money or low rates, a declining dollar and most of all, falling production coupled by rising demand. That’s exactly what we’ve got in 2008.”

Back in March 2006, Eric was so excited about soft commodities he asked Jyske Bank in Denmark to create a guaranteed structured product to invest in a basket of agricultural commodities. Twenty-four months this fund is up 72%. To find out more and find out how to feed the world and your portfolio, click here.

Unfortunately, there is still no specific ETF for rice. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any commodities ETFs to help investors profit from the rise in rice and grain prices.

“Commodity service-providers have launched a blizzard of commodities ETFs over the last 12 months,” says Eric Roseman in the Offshore A-Letter.

“These new ETFs allow both individual and institutional investors access to hot commodities like coffee, wheat, sugar and corn, to name only a few.

“It’s no wonder investors have poured an extra US$30 billion into commodities within the first 60 days of the year alone compared to just US$10 billion in 1998. The boom has arrived and everyone wants a piece of the action as the dollar slides, rates plunge and emerging markets feed their bustling infrastructure and populations.”

Global ETF specialist Mike Burnick is also bullish on commodities ETFs.

“I’m really excited about the relatively new class of ETFs that were launched just in the last few years that track commodities. As you know, commodities have been a red-hot investment over the last – really, over the last five or six years of this bull market. We’ve seen crude oil more than double; some of the industrial metals have more than tripled; gold is up above $950 an ounce.

“Now, on the London Stock Exchange, there’s a company that listed a whole series of ETFs that cover everything in the commodities sector that you could imagine. Everything from aluminum to zinc, and everything in between. I’m really excited about these agricultural commodities.”

Read Mike’s article on hot ETFs.

According to the Washington Times, “Costco and other grocery stores in California reported a run on rice, which has forced them to set limits on how many sacks of rice each customer can buy.”

Meanwhile, reports the paper, “Filipinos in Canada are scooping up all the rice they can find and shipping it to relatives in the Philippines, which is suffering a severe shortage that is leaving many people hungry.

The reports of food rationing in California come as US rice futures hit record highs.

Many smart investors are asking: Is there a rice ETF? And the internet is hopping with questions about the existence of commodities ETFs to profit from the situation.

Soft commodities are now the best-performing sub-set of the commodity bull market,” says Eric Roseman in the Offshore A-Letter.

“It’s the perfect storm for investors — especially when just about everything else in the investment world has continued to post big declines since last July.

“Commodity service-providers have launched a blizzard of commodities ETFs over the last 12 months. These new ETFs allow both individual and institutional investors access to hot commodities like coffee, wheat, sugar and corn, to name only a few.””It’s agricultural Armageddon,” says ETF expert Mike Burnick.

“The escalating food crisis is easily the biggest problem facing Asia and other emerging markets — much more troubling than the credit crunch. After all, people in these nations can do without bank loans or new credit cards, but they can’t stop eating!”

The price of rice, which has doubled in the past year, jumped 2.3% in Chicago today.

“Soft commodities are now the best-performing sub-set of the commodity bull market,” says Eric Roseman in the Offshore A-Letter.

“It’s the perfect storm for investors – especially when just about everything else in the investment world has continued to post big declines since last July.

“Commodity service-providers have launched a blizzard of commodities ETFs over the last 12 months. These new ETFs allow both individual and institutional investors access to hot commodities like coffee, wheat, sugar and corn, to name only a few.”