According to a latest report released by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, global rice prices are likely to rise in the short term mainly due to increased dependency on imports by producers such as China and Indonesia.

The report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization however predicted a a gradual decline in the prices in the long run.

The two groups predict rice prices will rise to $360.3 PMT in 2008-09, but then start to decline in subsequent years to hit $326 PMT by 2016-17.