Wheat Prices Soar to Record High

(KNSI) – Another food staple is getting more expensive in a hurry, adding to inflationary pressures. Wheat is found in a ton of foods you consume every day; bread and biscuits, cereal, pizza crust, pasta, and snack crackers. A bushel of the grain now costs nearly $12.80, an all-time high for the contract that expires in July.

Wheat is being hit by a perfect storm. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in the spring decimated farmland in one of the globe’s great breadbaskets. India, a top-ten producer, will struggle to feed its own people due to the effects of a crippling heatwave. The spring planting season is also coming in lighter than normal due to a late winter in the Upper Midwest. The states of North Dakota, Kansas, and Montana produce the most wheat in the country.

The surge will hurt the corner restaurant as well as some of the state’s largest employers, including General Mills. It will also put more pressure on the United States Federal Reserve to hike interest rates faster than planned.

Central Minnesota farmers produce primarily corn and soybeans.

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