Posted on 03/12/2008 2:25:15 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. bakers lobbied the Bush administration and Congress on Wednesday to build up wheat supplies and take other measures to dampen wheat and flour prices.
Robb MacKie, head of the American Bakers Association, said booming prices for wheat has brought the U.S. food industry to a crossroads -- threatening profits, jobs, and potentially boosting prices by double digits for consumers when they buy everything from bread to pizza.
"It's going to get much worse," MacKie told a news conference with other members of the baking industry, who will meet Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer and other officials in Washington on Wednesday.
Commodity markets have been transformed in recent years by record prices and volatility, fueled in part by growing biofuel production, mounting demand and poor harvests.
This week, the Agriculture Department forecast the U.S. wheat supply would hit its lowest level since the 1940s, at 242 million bushels.
Such short supply has intensified nervousness for the bakers, who say they're afraid that some wheat varieties will be unavailable.
The association is hoping to build support for its plan to defray those prices, including shifting conservation land into production in wheat states, greater government flexibility on biofuel mandates, and steps to build up stockpiles at home.
Other sectors of the farm economy, livestock and dairy particularly, have also complained about the impact of high grain prices.
But the bakers' push is viewed with disdain from other quarters of the agricultural community as critics say they should have seen the price crunch coming.
The bakers insist are not seeking an export ban for wheat, but say they do want to reexamine programs, including export incentives and international food donations.
"Our concern is that there is a sense at USDA that this is a temporary blip," MacKie said.
The Bush administration has said it opposes steps to limit exports.
"What we are talking about is the end of an era in agriculture policy," said David Brown, vice president for procurement at Sara Lee Corp.
Yet another product of the Ethanol scam!!!
The USDA folks who think this is just a "blip" probably think Global Warming will resolve the issue.
China has already shut down exports of all grains, or their use domestically in industrial processes. Their winter was a bit harder than ours, but Russia is expected to do the same thing.
Had any grapes from Chile or Argentina lately? The skins on the seedless green and red grapes are as thick as the skins on varietals used to make wine.
There's a reason for that and it's not good.
My neighbor farms about 1100 acres, he is just as giddy as a schoolgirl now. Be interesting to see his ratio of beans to corn this year, I am betting he replants 90% corn again this year too.
The High Plains of Texas and New Mexico have been very dry. I would guess that dryland wheat growers are having a tough go of it this year.
If you think its bad now ... just wait to see what happens if the Socialistas get elected in Noviembre.
Hey, if corn can bring big $$, why not wheat? We should’ve never started to sell our reserves. Gas, wheat, oil, what’s next?
Heard someone mention on the radio that the cost for a pizza as far as wheat flour has gone from six cents to twenty six cents. Steep percentage but name something that hasn’t gone up. But another quarter shouldn’t break the bank as far as ordering out a pizza.
Once again. You can get 60 loaves of bread from a bushel of wheat. When wheat was $3.60 per bushel you had 6 CENTS of wheat in the bread. If wheat quadruples to $14.40 bread should go up by 18 cents. The bakers and millers are thrilled the price of wheat has gone up. When wheat falls back to a more normal price the cost of bread will not come down to reflect this drop ensuring huge profits to the bakers. There still is the supply and demand process. There were poor harvests in several areas of the world last year that have caused wheat to go up. It will come back down.
Everything is going up except my paycheck...PLEASE, pretty please Mrs. Pelosi, do SOMETHING...you’re incharge you do-nothing left wing wretch! And no thanks to GWB either. Single term presidents are my preference. They might altually get more done if they know 1 term is all they have instead of worrying about re-election and then being a lame duck target in term 2.
End product usually has a 3-6x the result of the costs you list there though. So 18¢ (wholesale cost) x say 5 at retail = 90¢ more the consumer has to pay. More grocers products are double all costs involved (for a 50% gross profit margin) and that doesn’t count all the middle processing.
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