As with most Thai restaurants, Berkeley’s Racha Cafe uses Thai jasmine rice as its staple. Jasmine rice is characterized by its fragrance, and a number of brands, including Golden Phoenix, Butterfly, and Three Ladies, have made their way overseas to the United States.
Patrick Lee, owner of Racha Cafe, primarily buys the Three Ladies brand for his dishes. By his account, the brand’s price has risen dramatically recently. “Bags [in 50lb. increments] were $22 to $23 two months ago,” Lee said. “Now, they’re somewhere around $40.”
Restaurant owners can raise the price of entrees to account for higher production costs, but that comes at the risk of losing customers. “I can’t raise prices because it is mostly students [who eat here],” Lee said, referring to those from the nearby University of California at Berkeley. “I might wait for next year or a couple of months until after the Olympics.”
China has dramatically slowed exports on their rice crop in anticipation of this summer’s influx of foreigners, which lessens the amount sold to neighboring and overseas markets.
In the meantime, Lee takes the hit to his profits. He hopes to ride out the storm, which might prove a formidable challenge. Whenever his restaurant is running short of Three Ladies jasmine rice, he travels to Costco to pick up the Super Lucky Elephant brand, a less expensive substitute. Last week he ventured out to the San Leandro branch of Costco for some bags of Super Lucky Elephant. At the time, Costco was limiting customers to four 50 lb. bags per visit at a price of around $22 to $23.
“The next day, my wife calls me and tells me to go pick up more,” Lee said. “I go to the [Costco] in Richmond, San Leandro, Hayward, Fremont. All out.”