Rice is a staple food for more than 3.5 billion people around the world. And now, it’s facing a major shortage, according to a recent report from Fitch Solutions. Analysts are forecasting a global rice shortfall of 8.7 million metric tons in 2022-2023, which would mark the biggest rice deficit for the world since 2003-2004, CNBC reports. When supply can’t keep up with demand, prices tend to be elevated. “At the global level, the most evident impact of the global rice deficit has been, and still is, decade-high rice prices,” Fitch Solutions analyst Charles Hart told CNBC.