Drought

Britain 'running out of wheat'

The spate of bad weather in Britain which saw the Isles suffer drought, then floods and now prolonged cold weather is expected to impact this autumn's wheat harvest. Britain will become a net importer of wheat for the first time in a decade this year because of the bad weather.

More than two million tonnes of wheat had been lost because of last year's poor summer. The prolonged cold weather would also hit this autumn's harvest. But the shortage was unlikely to affect the price of bread because of the global nature of the market and the fact that only 10% of the price of bread is attributable to wheat.

Drought

Ukraine has confirmed that it will ban wheat exports from November 15 after poor weather conditions slashed its harvest yield. Drought across Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan during the growing season has resulted in exceptionally low harvests.

Drought

Global food prices rose 10% in July according to the World Bank's food price index due to the drought across the USA midwest, Russia and Europe.

Maize and wheat prices rose 25% and soybean prices 17% during the period June - July.

The highest price increases were seen in Africa with maize rising 113% in Mozambique and sorghum rising 220% in southern Sudan.

Despite the rising prices, the organization said it does not predict people will riot as they did in 2008 when food prices last spiked to record levels.

Drought

Wheat, soybean and corn prices rise to record highs as adverse sentiment due to the US drought hits world markets.

 

Drought

Colorado suffers its worst drought in a decade. Governor enacts water-restriction legislation.

Wheatfields are parched from the US to Russia. Analysts fear serious pressure on global wheat supplies in the coming season with an inevitable increase in wheat prices.