(CNN) -- Retail chain Sam's Club will limit the sale of large quantities of rice amid a dramatic increase in the global price of rice.

The store will limit customers to four 20-lb. bags of jasmine, basmati and long-grain white rice, the company said in a statement. Its restriction mainly will affect businesses that buy rice in bulk, but the company said "a typical Sam's Club Business Member does not buy more than 80 pounds of rice in one visit."

"We currently have plenty of rice for Sam's Club members," the statement said. "This temporary restriction does not apply to retail-sized rice for sale in Sam's or elsewhere at Wal-Mart stores."

The restriction does not apply in Idaho and New Mexico.

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Sam's Club -- a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- has 593 wholesale locations in the United States and more than 100 abroad, in countries such as Brazil, Canada, China and Mexico.

Food prices have soared worldwide in recent months, leading to violence in some developing countries.

"In just two months," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said this month, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come." E-mail to a friend