Canadian grain prices ballooning

MONTREAL, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The price of Canadian seed crops is ballooning based on Asian demand, and Canadian bakeries are feeling the bite, a Montreal newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Gazette said soaring demand for convenience foods in China and India are attributed to the surge that saw the price of hard red spring wheat jump from its usual $5 per bushel last week to more than $12 a bushel in Canada and $18 in the United States. Durum wheat, used to make pasta, also is trading at record levels, the newspaper said.

The manager of Montreal's St. Viateur Bagel Shop, Saul Restrepo, told the newspaper passing on the cost to consumers was inevitable.

"Starting Monday, flour is going up from $32 to $40 a bag," Restrepo said. "That's double what it was a year ago. I have never seen flour prices go up as fast in my 20 years in the business."

The owner of the Fairmount Bagel Bakery, Irwin Shlafman, told The Gazette it isn't just wheat prices eroding profit margins. He said the cost of sesame seeds has soared to $97 a bag from $36 and a bag of poppy seeds that used to sell for $69 now costs $160, the newspaper said.