Wheat Prices Highest In More Than 10 Years

Saturday, September 1st 2007, 3:17 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Wheat prices in Oklahoma are at their highest levels in more than 10 years, nearing the $7 per bushel mark. Prices closed Friday between $6.45 and $6.77 at state markets and earlier this week at the Kansas City Board of Trade, December futures contracts hit $7.50.

Those are the highest wheat prices since 1996, when there was a shortage of wheat due to a poor crop the previous year and a drought.

Mark Hodges, the executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, says the higher prices now are driven by two factors. The first is speculation, followed by reports that foreign producers are not yielding big harvest numbers.

Oklahoma State University market economist Kim Anderson says the higher prices should mean that a large number of acres will be planted with wheat to be sold in 2008.