The cost of pizza and pastries is on the rise. Wheat prices have climbed to an eight-year high as inclement weather has damaged a wide swath of the world’s crop.
The big picture: Global protectionism plays into this as well.
- China holds much of the world’s wheat crop, but doesn’t sell much of that stockpile abroad, Bloomberg reports.
- Russia recently started taxing wheat exports, in a bid to hang on to more of its supply, the report says.
Of note: Wheat isn’t alone among food staples getting more expensive — but it is one of the more extreme cases.
- In a report out Thursday, the United Nations’ food and agriculture arm estimated that global food costs were up about 3% in October, compared to the month before.