Expect To Pay More For Food As Grain Prices Soar
Corn and Soybean prices are the highest in 7 years. That has a ripple impact on feeding livestock.
Ripple Impact
High feed costs are rippling through supply chain to meat counters. Expect to pay more for meat as Food Inflation Deepens.
The Covid-19 pandemic upended food supply chains, paralyzing shipping, sickening workers that keep the world fed and ultimately raising consumer grocery costs around the globe last year. Now farmers -- especially ones raising cattle, hogs and poultry -- are getting squeezed by the highest corn and soybean prices in seven years. It’s lifted the costs of feeding their herds by 30% or more. To stay profitable, producers including Tyson Foods Inc. are increasing prices, which will ripple through supply chains and show up in the coming months as higher price tags for beef, pork and chicken around the world.
Feed prices “go up and down, and you tend to take the rough with the smooth,” said Mark Gorton, managing director at the British chicken and turkey producer Traditional Norfolk Poultry. “But when it rallies as much as it has, it starts to impact massively on the business.”
The last time grains were this expensive was after the U.S. drought of 2012, and meat prices saw a dramatic run-up. Now, meat is again poised to become a driver of global food inflation, and part of the intensifying debate over the path of overall inflation and exactly what central banks and policymakers should do to aid economies still working to recover from the pandemic.
Soybeans at a 7-Year High
Wheat Near a 7-Year High
Oats Near a 7-Year High
Orange Juice is Cheap
Coffee is Cheap
Sugar Highest in 4 Years
Lean Hogs Near Top of 7-Year Range
Live Cattle in Middle of 5-Year Range
Crude in a 6-Year Channel
Not to worry, "As Reported" Consumer Price Inflation Is Lower Than Expected Once Again