Tony, I also heard on the news about a month back that some were buying rice to send to their families overseas.
Now, you'd wonder, wouldn't the shipping costs be outrageous...maybe sending money would be better? But money doesn't do much good if there's nothing to buy, so perhaps in some parts of the world, rice is indeed the coin of the realm these days?
BTW I use brown rice. Plenty available, so far.
;)
Hetty