NO PANIC
With the exception of Bangladesh, where some factory workers went on the rampage this month, Asian consumers have not taken to the streets to vent their frustration at the rising cost of food and fuel.
And with rice prices starting to ease in some countries, the hope is that the situation, which has been volatile in parts of Africa and in Haiti, will remain calm in Asia.
"Personally, I don't see panic," said Kazuyuki Tsurumi, the representative of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in the Philippines.
The FAO has said that food riots will spread in developing countries unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices.
"There's really no rice supply shortage," said Liza Balarit, a rice retailer at a public market in Manila. "Only a shortage of money to buy it."
In affluent countries such as South Korea and Singapore, many people are able and willing to absorb price increases rather than cut back on their favourite staple.
In Japan, some budget-conscious consumers are even turning to home-grown rice, which because of various government programmes has a fairly stable price, in the face of soaring costs for imported grains such as wheat, which is pushing up the cost of bread, beer and noodles.
"These days I am using more rice in our meals, along with some fish and miso soup, because bread and pasta have become too expensive," said one Japanese housewife.
In China, a net rice exporter, some people are even unaware that the grain has hit a record high on world markets.
"I am not going to hoard any rice, prices are very stable here," said Mr Hu, an office worker in Beijing.
"Is the international price at a record high? I didn't even know that."
