Hi Everyone,
We have been informed of upcoming price increases for grains and this is what we have been sent by our suppliers. Sorry for the inconvenience.
2023 has been an interesting year in many ways, but especially when it comes to major agricultural markets.
The 2023 season was up until July, an average production year here in Western Australia. Crops were in early and were showing good potential for a forecast 22 to 23 million tonne season. But when August rolled around, concern started to creep in due to the lack of rain, particularly in the areas north of Perth.
| As you can see from this map, we had one of the driest winter rainfall periods in living memory. This dry resulted in the crop forecast collapsing down to 14 million tonnes, nearly a 40% reduction. As expected, prices of grain increased as markets started to recognise supply issues. |
This was exaggerated by the dry season in Queensland resulting in multiple cargos from WA heading east to supply the markets there. They have now had rain, but it has set back their plantings and they will not see any summer crops for at least four months.
The current global climate has also contributed to pressures on the ag sector. Conflicts in both the Ukraine and Israel have impacted global grain trade and prices, as well as pricing on vital inputs like diesel.
How does this affect us? The main four grain ingredients we use have all increased considerably in price. Barley is up 30%, Wheat up 20%, Lupins up 33% and Oats up 42%. This has resulted in large increases in the cost of production for some of our products, particularly those containing high levels of Lupins and oats.
Unfortunately, this means we’ve had to increase prices on a number of our lines. Things are tight for businesses and individuals at the moment, and we have been reluctant to pass on these increases to our customers. We’ve had our team working on this for the last couple of weeks, assessing inputs and production, and have increased prices to the absolute minimum level we can justify.
