NPR: Low Wheat Prices Leave A Gluten Glut At Midwest’s Grain Elevators

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Wheat prices are falling to $5 a bushel, the lowest price in five years. As KOSU’s Rachel Hubbard reports for NPR, low prices are costing Oklahoma farmers between $20,000 and $30,000. 

The reasons for the price slump? A strong U.S. dollar, which makes it more expensive for overseas customers to buy American wheat, and weather:

They harvested their wheat in early June, but with spring floods, the quality of the wheat wasn’t good. That’s one of the factors driving down prices and keeping the grain elevators at capacity.