Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Villagers on the islands of Flores are eating leaves and jungle fruit because they can no longer afford rice.

East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Alexander Talo said 13,000 Flores residents were eating tamarind leaves and mangrove fruits. "When people are starving, we should not try to cover it," Mr Talo said.

On the whale-hunting island of Lembata, thousands have not eaten rice for three months as prices skyrocket. Mr Talo said 45 villages in the Sikka regency were suffering food shortages.

In Jakarta and Java, rice prices have risen sharply in the past two weeks, spurred by rumours of unrest, price rises and shortages. Prices now range from 2,400 rupiah (HK$1.68) to 6,000 rupiah a kilogram, compared with 800 and 1,200 last year.

Buyers at the Palmerah market in West Jakarta waited yesterday for cheap government rice to be sold off the back of trucks after a rush sale on Monday. Housemaid Wati queued in vain for three hours to buy 2kg of rice. "I can't afford it at these prices. I'll go home if the cheap rice doesn't come," said the 34-year-old, whose husband looks after their two children in Central Java.

Ethnic Chinese rice trader Lina closed the metal shutters of her shop on Monday after thugs demanded she pay security money. "They were selling cheap rice and women were crying because they couldn't get some," she said. Her shop is leaking after being partly burned during the May riots. "I lost 3,000 bags of rice in May with looting and I'm so scared it will happen again."

Motorcyclist Sir Alwi said he wanted to buy more rice because he had heard rumours the price would increase to 10,000 rupiah a kilogram. Stockpiling and smuggling are now on the increase.

South Sulawesi Governor H. Z. Palaguna said traders were smuggling rice through Kalimantan to neighbouring countries. "The South Sulawesi rice is stockpiled before being sold to Malaysia and Singapore," said Mr Palaguna, whose province is the biggest rice producer after Java.

Jakarta traders are venturing to other islands to buy rice directly from farmers where once they would have bought from a middle man. The Kompas daily reported West Java traders had driven to South Sumatra and paid farmers cash for wet rice at prices between 1,200 and 1,800 rupiah a kilogram.

The Government has imported 3.5 million tonnes of rice and plans to import another 600,000 tonnes by the end of the year to maintain supply.