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A second wave of food price inflation is set to hit the world’s leading economies as new agricultural benchmark prices are reset today at much higher levels.
In Chicago, wheat and rice prices for delivery in March 2008 have jumped to an all-time record, soyabean prices have surged to a 34-year high and corn prices have hit a 11-year peak.
As these record levels become the benchmark for the food industry today, knock-on price rises are set to hit consumers in coming months, raising inflationary pressure and constraining the ability of central banks to mitigate the economic slowdown.
A first wave of surging cereals prices that hit the wholesale market during the summer has now fed through the supply chain and contributed to rising inflation.
Eurozone food price inflation, rising to 4.3 per cent in November, was one of the main reasons for the jump in the zone’s annual inflation rate from 2.6 per cent in October to 3.1 per cent, the highest in six years. In the US, annual food price inflation of 4.8 per cent in November contributed to a rise in its inflation rate to 4.3 per cent.
In trading on Friday, the new benchmark price of wheat for March delivery rose 26 cents to $9.795 a bushel, more than 4 per cent higher than the $9.39 price for the expiring December contract. The new benchmark prices for corn are also more than 4 per cent higher than previously.
The benchmark prices for soyabeans delivered in January rose on Friday to a 34-year high of $11.64 a bushel, while rice, also for January, has jumped to an all-time high of $13.310 a hundredweight.
The agricultural commodities price rises are the result of high demand, poor harvests and low stockpiles of food. Emerging economies, where rising incomes are boosting consumption of meat and dairy products, have added to the pressures already generated by the biofuel industry.
