Who profits from the rise in food prices?

Question

Food prices have risen by 20% in the last year, whats your gut feel on who is profiting from it

Farm workers, farmers, distribution, retail, oil companies, share holders....take your pick or nominate your own please.

(asked in the V&V section just because this is where i normally read so recognise peoples IDs )

Answer 1

Well, while there has been some benefit to Midwest grain farmers who have spent the last decade in the cellar, more of the gain goes to grocery retailers who have hiked their margins on the end products more than is justified by the rise in the cost of raw materials.  And while some of it is justified by the high cost of oil, I am pretty sure the cardboard box holding the Wheaties still costs far more than the corn used to make the cereal.  That said, the box maker is facing higher production costs too.  So it really is a wide-scale case of inflation.

Ah, the facts: I found them.  A farmer makes a whopping $.03 per box of Wheaties.  I'm pretty sure that is nothing compared to the margin made by the store.

Answer 2

The ones who own the actual oil and influence the supply/demand market.

Everyone else is just passing along their increased costs til it ends up at the consumer (us).  Sadly, we have no one to pass our costs on to.

Answer 3

mediators are going to get the profit, in this man made game with the poor people.

Answer 4

Exxon makes 3% of their total expeditures.. Who makes the money is the middle east.

Answer 5

I think no one does.  The prices for the farmers are going up so they have to raise their prices so they can still make a profit.  

The price of oil is the reason that all the prices are going up.

Answer 6

Who profits?

ExxonMobil seems to be doing quite well.  Everyone else is getting f*****.

Answer 7

the government

Answer 8

The cartel of economic control countries

Answer 9

The main driving force behind higher prices  - China and India, along with other developing nations. The more demand there is for a product the higher its price will be. (Economics 101)

Farmers are getting more money for their crops then they have in the past, except the poor tomato growers.

Distribution is suffering due to the higher price of oil.

I'd say retail breaks even since people still have to eat.

The share holders are doing well now but will get burnt big time when the energy bubble bursts.

Oil companies, and speculators, are the real whores in this crisis, but they deal in a product derived form dead animals, so it figures. :-)

Answer 10

I do. I am planter, seller and end user. I make a profit on all three levels.

I sell to my distribution company at a profit. This company in turn sells it to my restaurant at a profit. I charge my customers again at a profit.

Our workers also enjoyed a government mandated increase in salary. And we voluntarily gave them an additional subsidy on purchases made through the farm cooperative store. One thing we take pride in is that our workers are well compensated with extensive benefits. One reason they voted not to form a union.

I also deal in fuels and I made a killing by buying a load of diesel (10 million liters) at relatively low cost (before price increase) and selling it three pirce increases later. I missed out on an even bigger deal of 110 million liters but that was out of my hands.

The most recent venture is buying up foreclosed residential and commercial real estate. We are eying developing these properties in the near future, probably within the next three to four years.

Hate to admit it but the crisis has been good for me. One reason why I was able to "retire" July 1st and leave day to day running of the family enterprise to my younger brother.

Answer 11

I'm pretty sure a lot of the rise is used to compensate for how gas prices (at least in America) have nearly doubled since three years ago. Since everyone is spending more to do the same tasks (transport, powering vehicles, etc) they're compensating for it by jacking the price up too.

So I'm sure it trickles down to overseas oil, since we're addicted to foreign oil and are not doing much about it. There's been a recent figure that was released about the books of major oil companies, and while most of their money goes to share holders, the amount of money they use to research alternate fuel sources, find American sources of oil, or do anything at all, remains a steady and repugnant 5-7% of profits a year. That means that despite how desperate the situation is getting, they don't seem to be able to be bothered.

Answer 12

Oil companies, they are the reason prices are going up. When the cost of fuel to deliver the goods goes up so does the delivery  charge , thus you get higher prices on goods.

Answer 13

im guessing the government, thats usualy who's behind it.

i dont think the farmers are getting any more, but its time they did, they work harder than most but are struggelling to earn a living.