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Assuming they were talking about India, I said yes, the inflation rate there has been spiralling and there's been an increase in commodities and in almost everything.

But my friends corrected me by saying it wasn't India, but good old Toronto that they were referring to, and that prices of oil, rice, lentils and wheat flour had almost doubled in a few short months. The price increase started around Christmas and peaked in April.

I visited my local store and found this was no joke.

For South Asians who are big consumers of rice and flour, the doubling of prices comes as a rude shock as these products are a large part of their daily meals and indispensable for many families. As a large rice importer in Canada told me, "If red beans are expensive you can buy chick peas or brown ones but for thousands of (people in the) Asian communities ... they need that chunk of rice on their plate."

Government officials here say the Indian government has completely stopped the export of non-basmati rice and levied more taxes for exports on basmati rice. The export prices, therefore, have risen, giving way to an increase in prices throughout the distribution chain.

After more research I found there is absolute chaos and a sense of the unknown from retailers who don't know what price they are going to get from wholesalers. And wholesalers don't know at what price they will buy the rice from exporters in India.

Customers, too, are afraid of not getting their supplies.

One South Asian customer I met at an Indian grocery store said she could not bear to eat any other rice but the Indian basmati. But she was worried that with prices doubling, she may be forced to choose other ordinary rice or worse, eat the rice found in big supermarkets, which, in her opinion, do not do justice to Indian food.

Basmati rice is a premium rice known for its flavour and consistency, and sold at a premium price. For instance, top quality basmati (before the price increase) used to be double the price of normal rice.

But stocks of rice have been under strain worldwide. The same is true of wheat (Canadian production last year was lower than the usual and droughts in Australia and other countries affected world wheat production).

However, the good news is that prices now seemed to have stabilized and while prices aren't coming down they aren't going up either. As well, the panic buying has stopped.

But the other big news is that India has had a bumper crop of basmati rice this year, so the fear of a shortage for the coming year has drastically subsided. Hopefully that should keep the prices steady, or if we are lucky bring them down in the near future.