Price of wheat to drive up shopping costs

ceridwen

The_Thrilla wrote: »

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...

Well - you can't blame Putin for saying this either. From the Russians POV it makes perfect sense for him to say that they won't be exporting any food - he's "looking after his own" first.

We have to expect that it IS going to be the case that countries WILL seek to "look after their own" first. Whether we agree with that or no won't influence them - that is what will happen (unless they find themselves wanting the foreign currency even more than they want to feed their own people).

Hence why I keep emphasising:

- Britain has to be come self-sufficient in food

- Our population HAS to stop increasing - right now - not next century, not next year - but right NOW. We simply cannot build on any more of our farmland - it HAS to stay as farmland. We simply cannot accept anymore demands from extra people (no matter who/what/where from).

There is little time left to:

- have our borders made MUCH stronger than they are

-have a "Please Stop at Two" campaign (regarding the number of children people have) and enforce the message by not giving any child benefit, etc to those as yet unborn (many people will think twice before conceiving further children if they know they won't receive any money for their upbringing from the Government and will have to pay all the associated costs themselves). That fact is proven by the number of posts over on another MSE Board - where many posters say "I want a child/another child but I cant afford it" - and posters fall over themselves piling in to say "Oh yes you can - you'll get this benefit/that benefit/the other benefit - YOU won't be paying much of the cost of that child yourself at all - everyone else will pay instead......".

- bring all our farmland back into useful cultivation.

...goes off wondering how much longer it will be before people believe me on this....:cool:

gailey_2

Does anyone know how soon prices will rise.
Hubby gets paid fri wondering if should bulk buy flour, cereals and pasta but unsure how muc to bulk buy as limited space plus extra costs up front and unsure how long would keep.

I get flour in lidls

self raising 45p
plain 45p
bread flour 65p.

wondering how long 10bags of each last as doing more baking I reckon 2-3months maybe.

definatly might bulk buy pastas.

diluvsdiscounts

I bought a 3kg bag of pasta shells yesterday in Netto for £2.29 not because I was panick buying but because we needed it although after reading this I now wish I'd bought two!

Bitsy_Beans

I'd heard somewhere that they expect prices rises to hit nearer to Christmas. Now isn't that all a lovely present for us all

igaveupnowimback

I didn't expect folks to be out stocking up already! I'm definitely thinking of longer term impacts, not short term price rises.

I was thinking there would be knock on effects too, in many ways - leaving aside media hype which then creates a problem in itself. If you really start considering the potential problems here, aligned with everything else that's going on, it's a little disconcerting. Rising prices, industrial unrest, farmers even harder hit, etc etc.

I was wondering about alternatives to flour, etc, and maybe even thinking about using tofu / quorn / soya instead of animal produce etc.

I don't know much about them, just wondered about lessening reliance on wheat/flours/grains/meat.

LittleGem

For anyone interested, the flour in Aldi is selling at 28p, or at least it was last week!!

paulwf

Although it is annoying to have any price rise I wouldn't worry about this too much. Let's keep this in perspective, although most of us use a lot of wheat if anything is going to rise in price then it is better for it to be a low cost item.

If a 50p bag of flour rises by 10% then that is an extra 5p, and 10% on a £1 bag of pasta is 10p. Much better than when the global coffee market creates a 10% rise as on a £6 bag of beans that is a 60p rise. Perhaps the best thing everyone can do is learn to bake bread if they don't already to keep costs down.

We are fairly lucky in this country that we eat such a diverse range of food. A couple of years ago corn prices in Mexico shot up and the poor live mainly on corn tortillas causing mass hardship for a large chunk of the population.

foxgloves

Short term, I'm not going to stockpile....just buy occasional extras for our storecupboard like I always have done. In the long term, extreme as some people will find the solutions expressed, I agree with a lot of what Ceridwen posted.

Mrs_Bones

Ok, maybe a silly question, but is this likely to affect gluten free products like the dove gluten free flour I buy?

igaveupnowimback

That's my point really, if prices do go up (even without panic buying) there's likely to be greater demand on alternatives so things like the gluten free stuff is likely to rise also. (IMO)

A few pence on a lot of items in the average shopping cart (NOT just flour & pasta!) adds up to a lot. I know there are many other things to eat, that's not what I'm asking really.

I'm wondering about alternatives to flour etc. I can already make bread / bake / use veggies and pulses etc. Can I use anything sensible to MAKE flour/substitutes?

I'm def not one for reading tabloid headline stuff so I'm not over reacting, just thinking a bit more about food supplies.