Record high wheat prices are giving prairie farmers a reason to smile, but could mean bad news for consumers.
Spurred by droughts in Australia, the world's third largest wheat exporter, and flooding in other grain producing countries, Canadian wheat is in demand more than ever.
Wheat prices have climbed almost 50 per cent to more than $7 a bushel in the past year -- while barley prices are up 70 per cent and durum wheat prices have doubled.
Analysts predict wheat prices -- already at a 30-year high -- may climb even higher.
"We'll most likely see record years in everything," Dog Chambers, manger of Quality Grain Marketing, told The Globe and Mail.
"We've definitely moved into a new realm with grain prices, and you only have to go back 18 months to see feed wheat trading at $2 a bushel."
This gives Manitoba wheat farmer Ian Wishart reason to be happy.
"If these prices hold strong," he said to Â鶹´«Ã½ in September, "and I don't see any major market signals that are going to change it, we're going to see a lot of optimism through the winter."
Consumers could, however, have less reason to be optimistic as grocers warn of higher prices at the supermarket. Suppliers will be charging about 10 cents more for a loaf of bread.
"Everything's passed on to the final user," said Winnipeg area Family Fare Supermarket employee Munther Zeid. "(The bakery) passes it on to us, we pass it onto the price to the customer."
Grocery shoppers can also expect to pay more for milk and meat as farmers use wheat in cattle feed.
Excess rains in Europe and parts of the United States have contributed to the tightening of supplies to the point where world-wide stocks are at their lowest levels ever.
"People are worried there won't be enough wheat around," says Bruce Burnett, director of weather and crop surveillance at the Canadian Wheat Board. "Especially to cover needs six months from now."
The Globe and Mail reports that a boom in ethanol in the U.S. is another major factor which has switched farmers' focus from wheat to corn -- reducing the word's supply of other grains and causing their prices to rise.
Nowhere is the wheat crunch worse than in Italy.
The world's leading consumers of pasta saw the country's prices rise almost 30 per cent last month. Italians boycotted the price hike, refusing to eat spaghetti and fettuccine for one day.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg's Kelly Dehn
