Thailand provides the only exception to the general picture of postwar chaos. Although the country suffered a certain amount of damage to its bridges and railways as a result of Allied bombings, its agricultural economy remained intact. No statistics are available on Thai rice production during the war, but there is little reason to believe that any appreciable drop took place. Stocks on hand at the end of the war amounted to about 800,000 tons. It is clear enough that Thai rice helped feed the Japanese armies and make up deficits in southeast areas under Japanese occupation. There was a remarkable expansion of rice cultivation during and immediately after the war, but though this injects new political and economic factors into the picture, it does not solve the problem of shortage in Asia. Western rice is more expensive, and has to be paid for with hard currency, and the fact remains that 90 percent of the world's production is in east Asia. Increases or decreases elsewhere have but marginal effect on the basic problems.