According to a recent article published by the BBC, the UK is set to experience what could be the worst wheat harvest in 40 years, which could lead to an increase in the price of flour and bread.
Farmers have said that the extreme weather they have been facing could mean that wheat yields are down up to 40 percent. Experts have said that the UK is likely to receive more of the same weather going forward due to climate change.
According to the article, some millers have pre-emptively pushed the price up of their flour by 10 percent and have warned that a no-deal Brexit could make the matter even worse.
The situation wheat farmers are experiencing has been referred to as a triple-whammy. The unusually heavy autumn rain meant that they could not plant as much wheat as they usually would, and the waterlogged soil led to less successful plants. This was followed up by widespread flooding caused by storm Jorge in late February. Then there was a drought throughout much of the UK which meant there was a less-than-optimal uptake of nutrients. Finally the heavy rain this August has caused many farmers to delay harvesting their crop.
"We're looking at a 30 percent reduction in our good fields, in some of our poor fields it's is even more", said Matt Culley, an arable farmer from Hampshire who is chair of the NFU's crop board.
Mr Culley said that some of his grain stores are virtually empty where normally they would be full at this time of year, and that much of the wheat that the rain has forced him to leave in the fields will only be fit for animal feed.
85 percent of wheat used by UK flour millers is typically grown domestically, and so the millers will have to make up for the losses with increased imports.
'The price of wheat has been increasing steadily since the summer, the price of flour will rise,' said Alex Waugh who runs the National Association of British and Irish Millers. 'Because the margins millers operate on are very tight, they will have no choice but to pass some of this increase on to consumers by raising prices.'
Farmers have said that the extreme weather they have been facing could mean that wheat yields are down up to 40 percent. Experts have said that the UK is likely to receive more of the same weather going forward due to climate change.
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| Image credit: Lakenvelder on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) |
The situation wheat farmers are experiencing has been referred to as a triple-whammy. The unusually heavy autumn rain meant that they could not plant as much wheat as they usually would, and the waterlogged soil led to less successful plants. This was followed up by widespread flooding caused by storm Jorge in late February. Then there was a drought throughout much of the UK which meant there was a less-than-optimal uptake of nutrients. Finally the heavy rain this August has caused many farmers to delay harvesting their crop.
"We're looking at a 30 percent reduction in our good fields, in some of our poor fields it's is even more", said Matt Culley, an arable farmer from Hampshire who is chair of the NFU's crop board.
Mr Culley said that some of his grain stores are virtually empty where normally they would be full at this time of year, and that much of the wheat that the rain has forced him to leave in the fields will only be fit for animal feed.
85 percent of wheat used by UK flour millers is typically grown domestically, and so the millers will have to make up for the losses with increased imports.
'The price of wheat has been increasing steadily since the summer, the price of flour will rise,' said Alex Waugh who runs the National Association of British and Irish Millers. 'Because the margins millers operate on are very tight, they will have no choice but to pass some of this increase on to consumers by raising prices.'
The Global Miller
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