I’ve been following the flour issue for some time now, and it appears that speculation is what is driving the price right now. For example, it was recently released that we have a less than projected carryover of wheat from last year (about 5% less),add to that, the dry fall, which is SPECULATED to have damaged a portion ofthe crop in the ground. Spring time will tell the story, so for now, it is still SPECULATION, and then there is the heavy snow cover in the spring wheat producing states. If we get a fast warming, the Red River will again flood, and possibly delay planting of the spring wheat crop…leaveraging winter wheat prices even more. The flooding that we saw in Australia has damaged a portion of their wheat crop, so it is SPECULATED that this will put still more demand on U.S. wheat supplies. In any case, there is not a world wide wheat shortage, so we will not see the huge price increases, but all of this SPECULATION is impacting the price that we are paying right now, and for the near future.
That’s the way I see it. Unless Mother Nature tosses us a curve ball, I don’t think we’ll see any major price increases.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor