Global Food Prices Soar

Wheat and rice futures reach new highs; costs sure to be passed on to consumers
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2007 4:44 PM CST
Global Food Prices Soar
A shopper takes her son along for the ride which shopping at the Heinen's grocery store in Bainbridge Twp., Ohio on Thursday, Dec.. 13, 2007. Consumer inflation surged by the largest amount in more than two years in November, led by gasoline prices. The cost of clothing, airline tickets and prescription...   (Associated Press)

Expect another surge in the cost of breakfast cereal: The benchmark price for wheat rose above $10 a bushel for the first time today, further fueling the inflation in global food costs that kicked in last summer. Benchmark prices for rice futures also hit a new high, and corn and soybeans hit 11- and 34-year peaks, respectively, the Financial Times reports.

The price increases will almost  surely be passed on to consumers in coming months. “We’ve already seen food prices increase this year at their fastest pace since the early 1980s, but the full brunt of those increases will begin in earnest in 2008,” said one economist. The rises are the result of low cereal stockpiles and shortages worldwide as well as high demand, notably from emerging countries. (More food prices stories.)

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