Farmer's wallets seeing marginal increase from food price bumps

Food prices for many commodities have been rising over the past few months, originally spurred on by a slowed global supply chain.

Another factor began a month ago, as Ukraine was invaded by Russia and the two countries entered into a war.

Both are major producers of wheat and other grains and as a consequence global prices for both commodities soared soon after.

While that uptick in prices has increased the revenue for farmers, Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission Chair Brett Halstead says the main culprit for rising prices is on the other side of food production.

"There's been talk about food inflation, and true enough the price of raw commodities has gone up, like wheat and the other commodities we grow. But the vast majority of the cost on a grocery shelf is not the raw products. It's the manufacturing, the transportation, the advertising, stuff like that. So when you see price increases of food, it's not all getting to the farmer."

Halstead says that as a farmer himself, he says it's important to make sure consumers know where the price increases are coming from in the production process.

"Obviously, some are because our raw products have gone up, but you know, the effects of things like the carbon tax and the fuel price increases on transportation probably more than outweigh the price on grain increases and price. So I think that's just something consumers need to know, that yeah some of that farmers do get, but a lot of it is transportation and other costs."

Those expanded prices could be long-lasting, depending on how the war in Ukraine shapes out.

"I'm not a market analyst, but Russia and Ukraine are two of the biggest exporters of wheat as well as a lot of other commodities in the world. It depends on how much damage is done to Ukraine's infrastructure if this thing ends, and what happens with sanctions on Russia," said Halstead, "It could take years, not weeks or months, to get things back to normal. Wheat is a staple food and it's required every day by a lot of humans in the world."