According to the article, corn based ethanol's tremendous new demand for fertilizers has increased their price sky high, such that some third world countries can no longer afford to plant as much wheat because the required (same) fertilizer is now too expensive for them to buy. Thus by choosing not to buy expensive fertilizer now, in the fall they will instead be forced to import expensive foreign grown wheat as a result of a reduced harvest !!!
It would also appear that countries which have attempted to limit domestic increases in food prices by instituting 'price controls' (see food riots thread) are now running the risk that a global 'black market' will leave them short of food ... since the same wheat / rice / corn / whatever can be sold at higher non-controlled prices right across the nearest border.
This is going to end VERY badly !
(snip)"April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Wheat rose after Pakistan, Asia's third-biggest producer, said it will produce less of the grain than forecast after high fertilizer costs prompted farmers to reduce planting.
Pakistan will harvest 22 million metric tons, less than the 24 million tons estimated in October, the farm ministry said today. Fertilizer use fell to 600,000 tons, less than half of the amount last year, after prices jumped 44 percent, the ministry said. A smaller crop may force the country to import wheat, which has doubled in price in the past year.
``Traders will be very keen on watching for any tenders by either Pakistan or India,'' said Mike Zuzolo, a chief market analyst at Risk Management Commodities in Lafayette, Indiana. ``If they do tender, this will suggest to the trade that there are indeed problems of self-sufficiency in these countries for wheat.''
Wheat futures for July delivery rose 13 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $9.475 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Futures reached a record $13.495 on Feb. 27 on speculation global stockpiles will decline to the lowest in 30 years, after excessive rain hurt U.S. crops in 2007 and drought curbed yields in Canada and Australia.
Shakeel Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's wheat commissioner, said last month that unless farmers get the favorable weather needed to reach a 24 million-ton goal, the country will need to import grain.
Grain Smugglers
Smugglers have worsened the supply situation, sneaking wheat into neighboring Afghanistan where they can sell the grain for about twice what they can get in Pakistan, officials said."(snip)





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