– cost of some imported goods skyrocket By Leonard GildarieWith a number of disasters worldwide affecting crops like rice, sugar and wheat, authorities are predicting prices will rise and Guyana may stand to benefit, local officials say.Yesterday, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, in response to queries about the possible repercussions for Guyana, noted that there is the possibility that the country’s rice might be able to attract higher prices on the international market.“This is good at a time when the industry is heading for another bumper crop. There is also expected to be increase in the international price for sugar. This is favourable for Guyana’s sugar in the US and Caribbean markets.”Imported goods at a city wharfHowever, he pointed out that the most likely and crucial impact of high and rising grains prices on Guyana will be their knock-on effect on international rice prices, through the high degree of substitution in feed formulas. “However, this effect will only manifest itself if wheat prices continue to rise for a substantial amount of time to affect future feed contracts and will depend on the relative prices of rice and corn.”In terms of higher wheat prices feeding into domestic inflation, the Minister assured that wheat does not account for a large amount in the typical Guyanese consumption basket, and with the fact that wheat prices typically only account for less than 20% in the price of a loaf of bread, it is unlikely that the Guyanese consumer will experience significant hardship.“However, should the price of feed rise internationally, the local poultry and aquaculture industries may experience a substantial increase in their cost of production, thus affecting their international competitiveness as well as domestic inflation.”After the high 2007-2008 rice prices, Guyana has been looking for better deals after prices plunged last year. Many farmers had benefited tremendously from the profits.With the country a minor player on the world market, it had been forced to become what authorities call a “price taker”.Even a deal signed with Venezuela last year to ship rice designed to put more money in the hands of local farmers was not enough to calm an industry struggling to handle late payments by millers.In the field of sugar,Cheap MLB Jerseys, a falling Euro value coupled with lower prices is troubling the industry.However, with moves underway to find new markets for sugar, other than the traditional European one with Tate and Lyle, this may see better prices being offered,NFL Jerseys From China, if the current market continues in the same direction.Already, the events on the world market may be affecting prices, with potatoes, onions and garlics on the local market seeing more than a 30% increase for consumers.A variety of freakish weather conditions across the world has sent the price of staples, including wheat, pork, rice,Cheap Wholesale Jerseys, orange juice, coffee, cocoa and tea to fresh highs in recent weeks.Recently, the Russian government announced a decision to ban the export of wheat to protect home consumers and this saw grain prices jump 8 per cent immediately, on what was already a two-year high. Russia is facing one of the worst droughts and fires to its wheat crop in history.Meanwhile, an increasing demand for foodstuffs and raw material in the resurgent economies of China and India has also driven prices for oil, copper and other industrial commodities higher.However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has tried to calm fears of a repeat of the food riots seen from Mexico to Indonesia in 2008. “Fears of a new global food crisis are not justified at this point,” it said. “This rapid increase in prices is prompting concerns about a repeat of the crisis of 2007/08. But after two consecutive years of record crops, world inventories have been replenished sufficiently to cover the current anticipated production shortfall.“On the other hand, should the drought in the Russian Federation continue, it could pose problems for winter plantings in that country with potentially serious implications for world wheat supplies in 2011/12.Wheat is just the latest crop to be affected by unusual weather. Coffee has been hit by excessive rain in Brazil and Colombia,Jerseys NBA Cheap China, just as rice production was reduced in India last year because of a late monsoon; pork and other meat prices have been driven higher by rising grain feedstock prices; and the Floridian orange juice harvest is down because of an unseasonal frost.Politics and speculators have also played a part; the unrest in Kenya in 2009 sparked a rise in tea prices, while the activities of some hedge funds have been blamed for wild fluctuations in coffee and cocoa. Earlier this