Wheat prices up almost 25%!!!
Wheat Breaches $12 for First Time After Biggest Gain Since 2002
Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Chicago wheat prices rose by the most in more than five years, breaching $12 a bushel for the first time as investors poured money into agricultural commodities on signs that global crop production isn't keeping pace with demand.
Global wheat stockpiles will probably fall to a 30-year low
this year, while corn inventories are headed for the lowest since
1984, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Feb. 8. Almost $1.5
billion flowed into farm commodities in the week to Feb. 19,
investment bank UBS AG said in an e-mailed report yesterday.
On the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, wheat for May delivery advanced $1.35, or 7.9 percent, to $18.4325 a bushel. The March contract, which has no limit because it is the closest to delivery, rose as high as $24.26 a bushel, after yesterday becoming the first U.S. wheat contract to top $20 a bushel.
<OK - so $4.26 on the $20 a bushel is close to 25% increase! YIKES!
Export Taxes
The rise in wheat prices has prompted some governments, including China, to impose export taxes on grains to ensure adequate domestic supply and curb price rises.
Kazakhstan, the world's fifth-largest wheat exporter, said it plans to impose export tariffs, the Financial Times reported today. Kazakhstan wants to limit exports in an effort to control domestic inflation, which is almost 20 percent, the report said, citing Agriculture Minister Akhmetzhan Yesimov.
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