Time for better bargaining

THE next few years of higher prices for many crop and livestock products offer farmers the chance to improve their bargaining position in the food industry.

Grain and oilseed prices, already relatively high, are set to increase again in 2008 and 2009. That trend will inevitably push up the price of meat and milk, as grain-based production will become even more uneconomical. Even without that trend, several years of high milk prices have been forecast globally.

When demand exceeds supply, the price goes up — the only rule of economics farmers need to know.