Price of flour to double?!

[mwieler]

You have problably all heard of the drought in the USA and Ontario....I was shopping today and the lady at the till mentioned that the price of flour was going to double! It's inevitable that the food prices will go up Again, but double in price? That's extreme.
That would mean, Really stocking up before the prices jump that high. Could this be true?

[FallenPixels]

They have been saying that for about a year and it hasn't happened yet. Prices have increased but not to the extent they like to claim.
It is like the bacon shortage, all the news outlets reported it, then 2 days later they retracted it saying prices would increase but it would still be easy to find bacon

[saddlebag]

It would be very sad to see that happen

[FallenPixels]

To give you an idea, they started claiming prices would double over a year ago and the sale price on 10kg flour in the Thanksgiving flyers (best price) was $7.38 last year and $7.99 this year (so far)

[glowworm2k]

The way the crop and commodity cycle works, it will be a few more weeks yet until we see increases. Wheat farmers are just selling their crops right now, so expect prices to go up through the winter.... unfortunately when a lot of us can least afford it :/

That said, my great-aunt and uncle (living near Lake Huron) had the best wheat crop they've had in decades, so you never know how drastic the increase will be... bad weather for some crops = good weather for others!

[kerrylj]

I do think we will see an effect from the terrible drought they have had this summer. The farmers in the US are struggling to feed their animals because the cost of all the feed grains has gone up. There was an article in the Star on the weekend about them actually feeding the animals "off products" like chocolate, candy, cookies and the like that was not good enough for human consumption to reduce their feed costs. I would expect that they would not even consider something like that unless things were pretty bad in some places.

I know I have bought rice and flour I will use just in case

[marstec]

Don't you love how prices jump for things like gas and groceries on the slightest bit of bad news? Remember when there was a problem with the rice crop? The price almost doubled and people went into wild hoarders-mode. The price still hasn't come down to what they were before the crop failure, but at least rice doesn't go bad if stored properly - can't say that about flour.

How much wheat is grown in Ontario...and how much wheat is imported up to Canada from the States? I live in the Wheat Belt, and we haven't had a drought. Imo, the hard wheat we produce is much better for pasta and bread than the soft wheat from the States.

[mwieler]

Don't you love how prices jump for things like gas and groceries on the slightest bit of bad news? Remember when there was a problem with the rice crop? The price almost doubled and people went into wild hoarders-mode. The price still hasn't come down to what they were before the crop failure, but at least rice doesn't go bad if stored properly - can't say that about flour.

How much wheat is grown in Ontario...and how much wheat is imported up to Canada from the States? I live in the Wheat Belt, and we haven't had a drought. Imo, the hard wheat we produce is much better for pasta and bread than the soft wheat from the States.

When I buy a lot of flour, I usually store it in the freezer. Stays better way longer, and the bugs don't get in it,like they do if flour sits around too long at room temp.

[lekate]

Don't you love how prices jump for things like gas and groceries on the slightest bit of bad news? Remember when there was a problem with the rice crop? The price almost doubled and people went into wild hoarders-mode. The price still hasn't come down to what they were before the crop failure, but at least rice doesn't go bad if stored properly - can't say that about flour.

How much wheat is grown in Ontario...and how much wheat is imported up to Canada from the States? I live in the Wheat Belt, and we haven't had a drought. Imo, the hard wheat we produce is much better for pasta and bread than the soft wheat from the States.

ohemgee I remember the rice shortage, I wanted to punch just about everyone who can't be bothered to read the news! Explaining int'l trade during a food shortage crisis became my area of expertise. And then plain economics, stock in NA increased because people were willing to pay for it.