Letter: Against the grain

In response to the letter from Liz Murray of the World Development Movement (14 July), I am surprised that she thinks that grain is expensive.

The average UK selling price at the farm gate was circa 135 per ton for wheat in 2010. Millers who bought forward speculatively will have purchased for rather less.

After studying my diary from 1983, I see that my father's average selling price for harvest wheat that year was 131 per tonne.

That is a rise of 3 per cent spread over 28 years or approximately 0.1 per cent increase per annum, while general cost inflation has been running at 3 per cent per annum or more.

Bread has increased in price rather more, perhaps by 1,000 per cent in that time.

In simple terms, 131 per ton in 1983 paid the combine drivers' wage for a fortnight, while 135 in 2011 pays him for just over a day during harvest.

Similarly, a new combine harvester cost 267 tons of wheat in 1983, while a similar machine today would cost a farmer 1,111 tons of wheat. A tank of diesel in 1983 cost two tons of wheat; today it is 10.

After many years when it was not worth growing, wheat farming today is just washing its face as production costs rocket. Those who think food is expensive need to look to the processors and retailers for answers, not farmers or grain traders.

Andrew Stoddart

Colstoun Mains

Haddington, East Lothian