US farmers’ hands are tied as world braced for wheat shortfall (Financial Times)

Financial Times published an article saying that for US farmers with crops left over to sell from last year, wild price moves have made markets more challenging. Grain merchants operating country silos have in some cases “just pulled cash bids” because “they can’t function in an environment where [prices] are changing that quickly,” said senior research fellow Joseph Glauber.  Hopes that the US agricultural export powerhouse will stop an emerging crisis in world wheat markets are likely to be misplaced, experts said. “Most of this year’s American wheat crop is already planted while soaring costs for fuel and fertilizer are blunting the economic incentives offered by Chicago wheat prices that this month reached $13.40 a bushel, an all-time high. Prices for soybeans and yellow corn have also risen, and they are very profitable relative to other crops,” Glauber said. “In some areas, this creates an incentive to cultivate more land with those two crops, which are largely used for animal feed and biofuels more than staple foods.”