Corn Prices Climbing Clear Up to the Sky

Soybean prices also highest in years, signaling food price inflation

Karl Salzmann • April 28, 2022 1:40 pm

Corn and soybean prices have skyrocketed to near-record highs, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, pointing to even higher food price inflation.

The price of soybeans shot up 27 percent to $17 a bushel, the highest amount since a 2012 drought, while the price of corn rose 37 percent to $8.15. That figure is just 24 cents less than the all-time high.

Both prices are likely to break the records in the coming weeks. Vegetable oil, oat, and wheat prices this year have already surpassed their previous all-time highs.

This increase is affecting the cost of producing everything “from pork chops to Pepsi,” the Journal noted. The consumer price index hit its highest level since 1981 this month, pushing the yearly rate to 8.5 percent. U.S. food prices in March were up 8.8 percent from last year, caused by inflation and supply chain issues under President Joe Biden, bad weather, and the war in Ukraine, a major corn exporter.

BofA Securities analysts told the Journal that the Biden administration could boost food supplies by cutting red tape that forces oil companies to blend gasoline and diesel with ethanol made from crops. The administration just this month changed the rules to promote corn-made ethanol, an attempt to reduce high gas prices.

The report comes on the same day that Bureau of Economic Analysis data showed the economy unexpectedly shrank last quarter, increasing fears of a recession.