Amid soaring world prices on basic food, Costa Rica's government moved to allay fears that a food crisis could hurt families here, releasing information that suggests grains such as rice are plentiful.

“The government assures Costa Ricans that the country does not have, nor will it have, a shortage of rice,” said Marco Vargas, the minister of economy, industry and trade.

The statement came after the National Rice Corporation (Conarroz) urged President Oscar Arias to declare an “emergency” and to swiftly pass measures that would boost domestic rice production.

An Economy Ministry press release Friday said that 60% of the country's rice consumption is homegrown, and the remainder is imported, showing an increase by national rice growers from past years when half of the foodstuff was grown abroad. Combining the last rice harvest with that expected for 2008, Costa Rica will have enough of the food staple to last “eight and a half months,” the release said.

Yet the assurance followed a week of doubt as U.S. supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Costco banned bulk sales of rice in the United States, Costa Rica's largest supplier. Wal-Mart's limit – four bags of rice to each customer – was a response to purchasing frenzies by alarmed buyers who have seen prices in some stores doubled in the past month, according to media reports.

Poor countries are facing a humanitarian crisis because of the fast inflation and shortages, according to the U.N. World Food Program, whose executive director, Josette Sheeren, says “This is a silent tsunami.”

Before a “possible shortage” happens here, said the Economy Ministry press release, the government has authorized Conarroz to import some 162,000 tons of rice, “so as not to affect Costa Ricans' purses.”

“Costa Ricans will have rice on their table for the rest of the year and there's no reason for house wives to go purchasing more than they would normally buy,” the ministry's release said.

The release added that the government is also examining an “aggressive program” proposed by the Agriculture Ministry to stimulate the growth of rice and other basic grains. The plan, if activated, would join a $500 million fund agreed last week by the Council on Agriculture and Livestock of Central America (CAC), and other food aid programs worth hundreds of millions launched by the United States, the World Bank, and their leftist Latin American counterweight, the ALBA trading bloc.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega yesterday inaugurated an emergency meeting of ALBA nations – Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela – and other Central American and Caribbean countries to tackle the issue.

Ticos gobble some 18,700 tons of rice per month, according to a report by newswire ACAN-EFE. Conarroz President Oscar Campos told the wire service that the cost of rice internationally has jumped from $100 a ton in 2003 to $485 a ton, but he added that Costa Rican consumers will not likely feel the impact of the price hike before July.