Price of wheat to drive up shopping costs

WelshWoofer

Hi,
I've just seen the lunchtime news and they predict that that the increase in the price of wheat will drive up the cost of the weekly shop even further.

http://www.itv.com/News/?intcmp=NAV_NEWS6

No help for those struggling to keep the shopping budget down.......

igaveupnowimback

Yes, I was wondering about that too, so far read slightly contradictory reports re the effects of this and America and Canada's varying expectations of good/poor harvests. Potential to affect pretty much everything - from flour stuffs to meat etc due to impact on grain supplies for animals.

Already pretty frugal, just wondered about anything can do to limit more damage to my low income and tight budget yet still feed us decent food!

RAS

Folks

Probably best to wait a few weeks for the shopping panic and the future market traders to calm down and the price to drop back.

maman

I read something about that this morning, something to do with a huge harvest being destroyed somewhere. Ironically I noticed yesterday evening that farmers were out harvesting here and remarked to OH that with such a good harvest maybe bread prices would come down!!

Farway

From reports I heard on radio 4, just scare mongering by tabloids and speculators, Russian wheat is not used here, mostly in middle east I believe, and it all becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, I noticed that the bread flour shelves in ASDA have been cleared out today, no doubt even now folk are rushing round Hoovering up loaves, flour etc

Gigervamp

We might not get our wheat from Russia, but if Russia is stopping exports, the countries that do buy from Russia will have to get their wheat from somewhere else, ie, the same places that we get ours from. More buyers going after the same wheat will push the price up.

The wheat harvest in the UK is having to be dried which will also push up the costs.

ginnyknit

It is worrying all this bad news about crops. I guess the best idea is just to get a bit extra if you have room, I decided to get a bag of bread flour each time I go shopping anyway as we want to make our own as often as poss, and the odd bag of dried fruit. Hopefully we won't need to join in the panic buying as we all intend to be organised better this winter.

radiohelen

The dry weather in May/June has played havoc with farmers. My cousin says he is cutting wheat early and the yield should be OK but the real problem he has is hay/silage. The dry weather meant the grass stopped growing which means there will be no feed for his animals in the winter. He is either going to have to buy in feed (where from cos all the farmers in the East of the country are in the same boat) or cut down his beef herd for winter... which means less next year.... my husband was horrified... no roast beef lunch!!!

greenbee

Gigervamp wrote: »

We might not get our wheat from Russia, but if Russia is stopping exports, the countries that do buy from Russia will have to get their wheat from somewhere else, ie, the same places that we get ours from. More buyers going after the same wheat will push the price up.

The wheat harvest in the UK is having to be dried which will also push up the costs.

You're spot on re. the exports. Plus not only is the UK's harvest having to be dried, but in East Anglia, where a large proportion of the UK's cereals are grown, there was very little rain in the run up to harvest, so the yield is pretty poor. Looking at the grains on the stalks, they're pretty small and wizened looking...

There is also a huge shortage of silage and hay, as radiohelen pointed out. Beans for animal feed also aren't looking great. Straw is being baled for storage rather than biomass, as it looks as if it's going to have to be used for animal feed (it isn't usually, as it's pretty poor from a nutritional perspective).

Overall food prices may go up, but if wheat prices go up disproportionately, then it's easy enough to avoid it. Bread isn't a necessity after all, there are plenty of other things to eat!

The_Thrilla

I broached this subject a couple of days back on another thread. As Gigervamp says, whether we use Russian wheat or not doesn't matter, there will be a knock on effect. And - call me scaremonger if you like, but I am giving you the facts; it is up to you what you do with them - I can tell you something else. Owing to the fires in Russia, no one is getting any Russian wheat - what's left of it - but the Russians. That is because Vladimir Putin has put a blanket ban on the export of ALL GRAINS, not just wheat. So the Russians are not exporting any barley, maize, rye either. So if you are thinking of switching to cornmeal...

ceridwen

greenbee wrote: »

Overall food prices may go up, but if wheat prices go up disproportionately, then it's easy enough to avoid it. Bread isn't a necessity after all, there are plenty of other things to eat!

Any ideas anyone has on what else one COULD have instead of bread would be useful...

Personally - I couldnt do without my toast at breakfast time (and thats after eating a big bowl of porridge...:o) and packed lunches for w*rk would be too much of a faff to think about on top of having to do a full-time job if I were trying to think of something else to use besides bread.