Waterlogged Crops Mean Higher Food Prices
ST. LOUIS — Expect high corn prices to drive up some food prices this year.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said farmers expect to harvest 78.9 million acres of corn, down 8.7 percent from the 86.5 million harvested last year, in part because Midwest flooding has damaged a portion of the crop.
An agriculture economist with Iowa State University said the USDA report shows that farmers planted more corn than they had anticipated, but that some of it was washed away in the floods.
The report said spring rainfall totaled 20 inches or more from eastern Oklahoma into the lower Ohio Valley, disrupting planting and other spring field work.
It said unfavorable wetness also hampered soybean planting efforts.
Corn futures jumped from $6 a bushel in early June to $7.55 for the July contract on Friday.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service said the swollen Mississippi River was about to crest at just under nine feet above flood stage at St. Louis.
The river’s high water has closed only the President Casino and a handful of other businesses along the city’s riverfront.
Upriver from St. Louis, the river was slowly receding Monday in hard-hit towns like Winfield and Foley, Mo., but it will be some time before residents can assess the damage.
Downriver from St. Louis, the river was expected to crest Wednesday at Cape Girardeau at just over 12 feet above flood stage.
Thousands of acres of farmland are flooded, but a floodwall protects Cape Girardeau and most of its 36,000 residents.