2-14 IAN Commodities Up

 A lot of commodities are  up and there is an explanation for that. A lot of commodities including corn and hay have great pricing these days and many Idaho commodities producers have a lot to gain. It’s been an interesting cycle so I called University of Idaho  agricultural economist Dr. Paul Patterson for an explanation.  “In any year there are commodities that are doing well and commodities that are doing poorly. It is unusual to see as many doing as well as they are at the same time. And to what do you attribute this trend? In a lot of these commodities we are in a world wide market. A lot of the demand on the grain side, we saw a worldwide shortage to grain a couple of years ago and the market is still trying to backfill on that so the strong grain prices are a function of the strong exports from the US. We are just part of that whole scheme. The other part that plays into that is the weak US dollar has basically helped exports in general from the US and we are highly dependent on exports for a number of the commodities in the US and it has certainly helped on the grain side of things. The other thing on the grain was the policy decision on the part of the government to focus on renewable fuels.