Soaring world rice prices have Cubans worried about keeping the national dish of beans and rice on the table - and officials are scrambling to increase local production.

Raul Castro's government hopes to halve rice imports over the next five years, according to Juan Perez Lamas, vice-minister of agriculture. To do that, it will have to more than double production - currently about 200,000 metric tons of milled rice a year.

Rice-obsessed Cubans consume an average of 130 pounds (60 kilogrammes) of it a year - more than double the US average. When rice disappeared for periods during the lean times of the 1990s, some people cut spaghetti into bits so it resembles their beloved grain.

Recent rumours that rice might vanish from cheap government rations led to panic buying at farmers markets before officials assured they wouldn't let stocks vanish.

Cut production

Low prices a few years ago led Cuba to cut rice production, turning to exports. But world prices have jumped from US$500 a ton to more than US$1,200 a ton in just a few months. That means it makes more sense to use local production, which costs about US$400 a ton, Perez Lamas told reporters at a recent conference on rice.

Cuba now grows just a fourth of the 800,000 metric tons its 11 million people consume annually.