Sunday, January 30, 2011

Watch Out For Higher Food Prices

As if we don't have problems with higher fuel and food prices, now, food prices are going to up even more. Commodity prices for wheat, sunflowers and other grains have gone up significantly.
From the Minot Daily News: North Dakota farmers faced some difficult conditions this past growing season, but even tougher luck in other parts of the world has allowed U.S. grain prices to steadily march upward over the past few months, with no one willing to guess when any sort of downward trend will begin....
On Wednesday, wheat sat at $9.56 per bushel, up 10 cents. It's not just wheat that's trending upward, however, it's pretty much everything. Severson said barley is also strong and corn is very strong. That's just the tip of the iceberg, as many other crops are also seeing good prices.
Severson noted sunflowers are typically in the $12 to $14 range per hundredweight, and stood at $24 on Wednesday. Canola is also typically in the $12 to $14 range, and stood at $23.98 Wednesday. Soybeans are normally in the $6 to $8 range, and were at $12.60, with new crop at $12.03.
"So yeah, everything is strong," Severson said. "There's no one particular grain that is way out ahead of the rest of them."
Wagner told a similar tale, noting pretty much everything is about one-third higher than it was in July.
(emphasis mine)
Great, grain prices are up by 1/3 since July. Great for farmers, bad for consumers, especially when you factor in the higher fuel prices,increased regulation, taxes, health care and everything else that companies have to spend to produce food.

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