Soaring corn prices due to the expanding US ethanol market have already driven US retail food prices up by $14 billion over the last year, claims a study by the Iowa State University Center for Agriculture and Rural Development.
The report suggests that this rise in US retail food prices is likely to get worse and that they could be pushed even higher - to an annual increase of $20 bn. Crude oil prices could increase from $65 to $70 per barrel and US
corn prices to $4.42 per bushel, compared to $2 per bushel in mid-August 2006.
In response to higher feed costs, livestock farmgate prices and therefore
retail prices for meat, eggs and dairy will also increase.
The direct effect of higher feed costs would be to push up beef, pork and poultry prices by more than 4 percent, and to send egg prices rocketing by about 8 percent.
clipped from: www.foodproductiondaily-usa.com