A crop plaguing American farmers is leading to an unexpected recovery in the American farm belt after years of agricultural recession.
Prices for maize, soybeans and wheat have risen to their highest levels in more than six years as dry weather and strong export demand from China drain US stocks.
Rising commodity prices are booming through the food chain, helping to bring about a sharp increase in U.S. farm incomes and increase the outlook for a range of rural businesses, from grain traders to equipment manufacturers and fertilizer suppliers.
At the same time, the revival in the grain sector is increasing costs and pushing up the profit margins for food and fuel producers who consume large quantities of US wheat and soybeans annually, and this is likely to increase the increases in food prices for consumers, some foods. drivers say.
It is a dramatic turnaround of recent years in which bumper crops have inflated U.S. grain stocks, causing prices to fall and farmers’ incomes to fall. A wave of bankruptcies spread farms out of the Midwest, followed by trade disputes and the coronavirus pandemic, which deepened farmers’ struggles.