One pyi of rice costs Kyats 10,000 in Ann township ofRakhine State and hence  manual labourers are now surviving with dry rice.

A local housewife of a nine-member family informed Narinjara News that theprice  of rice is increasing due to the military junta's travelrestrictions in many parts of Rakhine State.  As a result, rice grainsbecame unavailable in the market and now costs Kyats 10,000 per pyi.

"Previously, one pyi of rice cost only Kyats4,000. Now a bag of rice costs over Kyats 200,000. Currently, rice grains havebecome unavailable in the shops. The situation puts our family in greatdifficulties," she added.

Another local woman revealed that because of theshortage of rice grains, the people now can not afford to have two meals a day.Many of them are forced to eat only one meal and resort to dry rice for theother.

"There are starving people and some are havinglimited rice grains. Even some are resorting to washing and drying pig swill toeat,” she added.

Besides the scarcity of rice, other essential grocery items like ramen andsnacks are also vanishing from the Ann markets.

"Apart from rice, the prices of all food itemshave increased. Snacks, which were previously priced at Kyats 1,000, now costKyats 3,000. We are going through a lot of difficulties,” said another woman.

Ann township gives shelter to over 100,000 people, outof which  60,000 residents have already left their places.

In March, hundreds of people scrambled to get two pyiof rice in front of the grocery stores. Currently the rice shops are closed.