TOWN OF HUNTINGTON
Price Of Wheat, Hops, Food Growing
Village baker travels to Washington D.C., shares tales of rising costs
By Mike Koehler/ mkoehler@longislandernews.com

Customers still come back to Reinwald’s Bakery despite a jump to $3.45 from $2.70 for a loaf of rye bread since last May or a 17 percent increase for Semolina bread, but they certainly aren’t buying as much.

“We’ve been trying to maintain the same product, because that’s what our customers are used to. However we’ve had to have several price increases. It’s making it harder and harder for the customer to purchase the same amount of product,” owner Richard Reinwald said. “This is so dramatic I can’t believe I have to raise these prices, but if I don’t, I put my business at risk.”

Known for operating a respected bakery in Huntington village for two decades, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer invited him to speak at the Joint Economic Committee’s first hearing on soaring food costs. Reinwald told Congressmen and Senators on both sides of the aisle in Washington D.C. last Thursday how he watched the cost of a 100 pound bag of flour triple in 14 months from $17 in January 2007 to $52 in February.

“They were sympathetic. However, each senator had a different perspective. Senators from the corn states said it’s not corn, senators from the wheat states said it’s not wheat, senators from New York said it’s not the speculators and hedge funds,” Reinwald said. “There’s plenty of blame to be spread around. The real question is what are we going to do about it?”

Many reports have been published claiming that farmers have given up on growing wheat and other traditional crops in favor of corn, which gets purchased to make Ethanol, the popular fuel additive designed to make vehicles burn less gasoline. The remaining wheat farmers have already planted their crops, and only a trivial increase has been added.

The baker also said this shift is a major source of rising prices. He also mentioned crop failure in Ukraine, export restrictions in South America and drought in Australia.
The end result for Reinwald, bakers, pizza makers and other who rely on wheat is that they must raise their own prices just to stay in business.

“We’ve been trying to maintain the same product, because that’s what our customers are used to. However we’ve had to have several price increases. It’s making it harder and harder for the customer to purchase the same amount of product,” he said.

After the meeting, Schumer said he hoped his guest’s testimony would hit home.

“Small bakeries like Reinwald’s and consumers of all stripes are getting hit from all sides. Richard gave the committee a first hand account of the pain the squeeze business owners and consumers alike are feeling on Long Island and across the country. Now what we in Congress must do is act to give Richard and all his customers some relief,” the Senator said.

Hardware store owner Allen Talman, however, confirmed that the price hike hasn’t just plagued bakers and the like.

Talman runs Karp’s Hardware in East Northport, known just as much for their homebrewing as their tools and equipment.

Like bakers and wheat, the food shortage has also taken its toll on hops production. A flowering plant grown throughout the world, hops are one of four ingredients in beer, adding the bitter flavor and herbal aromas. The same focus on corn and natural disasters have also sharply reduced the amount of these plants available for brewing, driving up prices at Karp’s three or four times, while they’ve been forced to carry far fewer varieties.

“[Many sell for $3 an ounce] and very recently we were selling them for $.99. And while we use to have a variety of hops, we only have four or five types,” Talman said.
Price tags for barley and malt – barley that has been germinated and quickly dried to turn starches into sugars – have also spiked. Grains provide the sugar that fuels the yeast into creating alcohol and are a vital component of beer. A three-pound bag of malt cost $10 last year, whereas that same bag will now run about $15.

“Barley prices are up 40 percent,” Talman said. “You would roughly use a pound per gallon.”

The owner also suggested that this could devastate the commercial breweries as well as individuals who make beer for fun.

“There are homebrewers who won’t make the same beer, while there are commercial brewers who won’t experiment,” he said. “It certainly affects commercial brewers because they need to make money. A homebrewer is not doing it to make money.”

Like the wheat crop, this season’s hops have also been planted. Sowed in the early spring, these vine-like plants grow upwards until the flowers are picked at the end of the summer. They’re then taken to one of few facilities that dry and bundle the plant products.

Hops prices may not fall until next year, since these plants have been supplanted by corn, Talman said.

“A lot less hops were planted here for two years running,” he said.