Australia: Prices for barley are breaking records, registering an increase by AU$70 in three weeks

Prices for wheat and barley are breaking records, fuelling concerns customers could be paying even more for staple foods, Food Week posted on August 28th.

Bread, baked goods, beef, chicken, eggs, beer, and a range of other products are all exposed to grain prices.

The AWB has this week increased its estimated pool return for its harvest by AU 30 a ton, making it AU $300 a ton for the first time.

The coming barley harvest is in a similar situation, rising to AU 325 a ton for feed barley and $336 for malt barley– a jump of nearly AU $20 in a week, or AU $70 in three weeks.

This has been blamed on problems in the Ukraine, one of the bigger suppliers to Saudi Arabia, the biggest feed barley imported in the world.

“We have never seen prices like this,” said WA-based grain group CBH’s acting senior trading manager Jason Craig. “This is unknown territory.”

Goodman Fielder told the West Australian that it aimed to recover raw material cost rises from customers, while George Weston Foods has put in a 2.8% price increase, its third in a year, due to higher input costs.

30 August, 2007