Thread: THE world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat

Wheat Hits Record on US Inventory Report
By STEVENSON JACOBS

AP Business Writer

Wheat futures hit a record high for a third day Friday, soaring near $11 a bushel in Chicago after a U.S. government report confirmed dwindling stockpiles of the grain used to make bread, pasta and other foods.

Wheat's rally lifted other agriculture commodities, with corn and soybean futures trading sharply higher. Precious metals and energy futures also rose.

Wheat prices have surged to historic highs as bad weather has battered crop after crop around the globe, most recently in India and Canada. Foreign buyers scrambling to lock in supplies have increasingly turned to the United States, which is exporting the grain at record pace. The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a bullish report Friday predicting U.S. wheat inventories will total 272 million bushels by the end of May, the lowest in more than five decades and about 7 percent less than expected last month.

"There's only one thing going on with wheat and that's a shortage of red wheat that can be milled into bread and pasta," said Elaine Kub, analyst with DTN. "People are just buying up whatever wheat they can."

Wheat for March delivery surged the 30-cent daily limit to settle at $10.93 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade _ the highest ever for that contract. Wheat also hit record-highs on Thursday and Wednesday.

Unprecedented demand for agricultural products from fast-growing countries including China and India has exacerbated the supply crunch for wheat, which has more than doubled in price since last year.

The higher wheat prices may not immediately affect U.S. consumers since big food companies like Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc., and Kraft Foods Inc. typically protect themselves from price volatility with long-term supply contracts. But the spike could lead foreign government to implement price controls to thwart already rising food inflation, especially in developing countries, analysts say.

"People must eat so you may see governments stepping in to help citizens," Kub said. " You're already seeing problems in places like Pakistan, where they're literally running out of flour and wheat."

Other agriculture futures also rose Thursday. March soybeans climbed 7.5 cents to settle at $13.39 a bushel after earlier spiking to a record $13.745. March corn rose 8.5 cents to settle at $5.08 a bushel, while March oats added 9.25 cents to settle at $3.50 a bushel.

In metals futures, platinum hit another record on supply concerns fed by South African power cuts that have slowed mining in the world's largest platinum producer.

Platinum for April delivery surged to an all-time high of $1,890.90 an ounce in aftermarket trading on New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier platinum settled $32.60 higher at $1,884 an ounce.

Other precious metals also gained. Gold for April delivery jumped $12.30 to settle at $922.30 an ounce, while March silver added 33.5 cents to $17.110 an ounce. March copper increased 8.55 cents to $3.5395 a pound.

In energy futures, oil prices rose Friday on renewed concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and worries that U.S. recession would curb demand. Light, sweet crude for March delivery jumped $3.66 to settle at $91.77 a barrel on the Nymex.

Other energy futures also traded higher. March heating oil futures jumped 9.56 cents to settle at $2.5541 a gallon, and March gasoline rose 8.94 cents to settle at $2.3572 a gallon.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... iew08.html

You havent seen inflation yet folks... by July Sept time frame I look for it to be in the 18 - 22 percent range

Food shortages loom as wheat crop shrinks and prices rise

Jonathan Leake
THE world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years.

The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high and could lead to further hikes in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods.

It could also exacerbate serious food shortages in developing countries especially in Africa.

The crisis comes after two successive years of disastrous wheat harvests, which saw production fall from 624m to 600m tonnes, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Experts blame climate change as heatwaves caused a slump in harvests last year in eastern Europe, Canada, Morocco and Australia, all big wheat producers.

Booming populations and a switch to a meat-rich diet in the developing world also mean that about 110m tons of the world’s annual wheat crop is being diverted to feed livestock.

Short term pressures have compounded the problem. Speculative buying by investors gambling on further price rises has further pushed up prices.

Though shortages are often blamed on the use of land for biofuel crops, the main biofuel cereal crop is maize, not wheat. Farmers have brought millions of acres of fallow land into production and the FAO predicts that the shortages could be eliminated within 12 months.



Have your say

As the article pointed out, the main cause for the shortage is bad weather for several years in most of the major wheat production areas in the world. Yes, other crops are competing aggressively for land domestically in the US, but not all of that is driven by biofuels. Some of it is caused by the availability of more efficient new technology in competing crops that isn't available - yet - in wheat. If wheat can gain access to new traits for drought tolerance, herbicide resistance, disease resistance and others, wheat will compete more favorably with those other crops and wheat growers will be able to continue meeting consumer needs. Unless we tie our hands behind our backs by requiring organic production or closing the door to technology, there's enough land to produce food, fuel, feed and fiber for everyone.

Daren Coppock, National Assn of Wheat Growers, Washington, DC

This rather puts an end to the big con of "organic" farming which has a far lower output & is till supported by crazy government cash

j.pitts, Northampton, England

Many scientific studies have shown that biofuel made from any crop are far worse for the environment than using ordinary gasoline and actually speeds global warming. Biofuel production is shrinking the human food supply, causing water shortages, and accelerating topsoil erosion which leads to desertification of the planet. The only biofuels that hold promise are biofuels made from algae or garbage. Unfortunately, those two technologies are still experimental, unproven, and years away from commercial production.

See: "The biofuel hoax is causing a world food crisis!"

http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html

The fact that the television media in the U.S.A. has ignored the world food crisis and the biofuel hoax is criminal. All of the three major United States presidential candidates are still on the mindless biofuel bandwagon, and until U.S. television ends its silence, I am afraid the biofuel bandwagon to hell will continue.

Christopher Calder, Eugene, U.S.A.

PS. I forgot to mention that in Italy they use wheat to make ethanol, and many wheat farmers in the U.S.A. and Canada have switched to growing corn for ethanol production.

Christopher Calder, Eugene, U.S.A.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 423734.ece

That's because most of the wheat "farmers" from Mexico are illegally living in the US, compliments of NAFTA!

Hey bio-diesel is great!

Stock up now!