Hunts wheat yields down - but price rise and Kremlin compensate

WHEAT yields for Huntingdonshire farmers are significantly down this year after the long, hot summer. But fires raging across the Russian bread-basket and the Kremlin’s decision to restrict exports mean prices will go up to compensate.

WHEAT yields for Huntingdonshire farmers are significantly down this year after the long, hot summer. But fires raging across the Russian bread-basket and the Kremlin’s decision to restrict exports mean prices will go up to compensate.

Malcolm Lyons, a seed merchant and Huntingdonshire chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, says yields in this summer’s harvest are down by about 20 per cent.

“A farmer would typically look for a yield of 10 tonnes per hectare. This year, it’s down to about eight, though it’s variable,” he told The Hunts Post. “The later fields have had a lot more moisture, so yields will be better.

“But the fires in Russia show just how fragile global supplies are, but the good news for prices will soften the blow of the reduced yield,” he added.

“Farmers are the only people who have their factories out in the open, and the 15p increase in the price of a loaf of bread is purely because of global demand – the fund managers entering commodity markets don’t help: most of them wouldn’t recognise wheat if they saw it.”