Malt Barley... what SHOULD the price be?

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie,

I read this article from Germany... very interesting to say the least!

To hear the Maltsters squalk... we must know they have known for a while this has been comming!

"With the current spike in barley prices, we won't be able to avoid a price increase of our beer any longer," Erdmann said, stopping to sample his freshly brewed, golden product right from the steel fermentation kettle.

In the last two years, the price of barley has doubled to about US$270 per tonne as farmers plant more crops such as ****seed and corn that can be turned into ethanol or biodiesel, a fuel made from vegetable oil.

As a result, the price for the key ingredient in beer - barley malt, or barley that has been allowed to germinate - has soared by more than 40 per cent, to around 385 euros or $520 per tonne, from around 270 euros a tonne two years ago, according to the Bavarian Brewers' Association."

http://technology.sympatico.msn.ca/Trouble brews in Germany as boom in biofuel jacks up price of beer/NewsandOpinions/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=68196032&fee dname=CP-TECHNOLOGY&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&sub title=&detect=&abc=abc

Why EXACTLY has the CWB missed this fact... one the rest of the world sees as being obvious...

the Montana (Golden Triangle District) Malt Barley: price @$196.60 /tonne (Canadian)

&

Montana (Great Falls) Dark Northern Spring Wheat #1 (13.5%): $202.50 /tonne (Canadian)


CWB justification as to why our prices in ALberta are $40/t below Fair Market Value ring hollow, don't they?

[ColevilleH2S]

Articles like this just drive me bonkers. I wish consumers knew just how little the price of raw commodities have do do with what they are paying for the final product. All of this talk of higher food and beer(in this article)prices is just processors using raw commodities as an excuse for the high prices of energy and labour. These two inputs unfortunatly have a bigger influance on processed food prices than corn, wheat, soy, etc.

Using "INFLATION" adjusted prices, todays $4 corn and $5 wheat are Cheap,cheap,cheap compared to most of history.

[ColevilleH2S]

In regards to the article:

http://technology.sympatico.msn.ca/Trouble brews in Germany as boom in biofuel jacks up price of beer/NewsandOpinions/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=68196032&fee dname=CP-TECHNOLOGY&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&sub title=&detect=&ab

I was jealous of those Germans and their 10 litre cases of beer until they mention their draft is worth $10.50/pint. I think I'll save up a little more cash before I do my European tour.

[wd9]

Hard to feel sorry for an industry who has been getting malt for almost free for so long. What did they expect, for it to go on forever?