I am sure we can all feel the rising prices of food this year, and according to many different reports this is only the start. Is this only scaremongering or the prices really will go up even more? Probably they will rise even further and at a higher rate I think. And of course we can blame the rising food prices on the weather. Here in the UK we had a really difficult growing season, and as you can imagine it was difficult for all the big food producers too, not just for us home gardeners.
September is the apple harvest in the UK and elsewhere in Europe too, and farmers report 25% less crop which according to experts will mean at least 20% rice in apple prices in the coming months. Heavy rain here in Britain and drought in the US, Russia, Ukraine and Australia (the biggest producers of maize and wheat) will likely to push the food prices up further later in the year and in 2013.
Wheat and maize prizes are already up in the stock markets. And many countries in the Middle East and Africa depend heavily on wheat export from Russia, so it was good news for all those countries that Russia will not restrict grain exports.
So how current grain prizes will affect food prices is quite easy to see. It is not only your bread that will cost more, as it is produced from wheat, sorry I know you did know that; but meat prices are tend to go up too as it takes about 7 kg of grain to produce 1 kg of beef and 4 kg to produce 1 kg of pork. Hmm… I think I will be a vegetarian soon; and will definitely try to bake my own bread.
The question is: Are we going to see a ‘grow your own’ revolution (or is it going to be ‘dig for victory’) once again in 2013? Oh wait but can’t really dig in the mud can you? (Let’s hope for a sunny Spring!)
