Flour is the new oil
I recieved this in an email from “The Prepared Pantry”
“Flour is the new oil”
In early February, we bought newly milled premium bread flour for $14.85
per 50 pound bag. Now, from the largest broker in the Intermountain
West, the wholesale price for that same flour is $30.44. While we buy
enough flour to command prices below wholesale, the trend is
dramatically up and projections are for continuing increases. Other
products, especially dairy and nuts, have increased sharply over the
last 6 months.
What happened to make the cost of flour double within weeks?
Repeatedly biofuel is blamed as the culprit. As the demand for corn
increased, so did the price. When farmers could make more money raising
corn than wheat, they grew corn. Now we don’t have enough wheat. We are
importing instead of exporting wheat.
So what’s going to happen?
Prices of wheat products will continue to rise as older stocks of flour
are used and replaced. We believe that flour prices will continue to go
up for several months.
If the price remains high, we expect farmers to plant more wheat this
season. An increased supply should drive prices down. We believe this
will happen but we will be surprised if flour is ever under $20 again.
As more farmers plant wheat and corn instead of other crops, prices for
other agricultural products may rise.
So what is The Prepared Pantry doing?
We will continue to shop aggressively for the best prices on flour and
other ingredients.
We are raising prices. In the last few days, we raised bread mix prices
an average of 19%. That is not high enough to fully compensate for the
recent increases in flour and other ingredients but we will hold these
prices for as long as we can. If prices continue to rise, we will have
to take another price increase.
We will not cut corners and buy dated or inferior ingredients to save
money. We are committed to providing you with the very best products at
reasonable prices.
We hope that you have found this information useful. We trust that you
will find our price increases reasonable and modest given the
circumstances.
The Prepared Pantry
