A Pessimistic Forecast for the Wheat Harvest
Commercial Review editor Leo Peterson warns local farmers that holding out for higher prices might be a dangerous gamble as global competition looms.
Leo Peterson, editor of the Commercial Review, published at Portland and one of the leading wheat and grain authorities of the Northwest, is in Walla Walla today gathering crop statistics. Mr. Peterson expressed himself as very pessimistic regarding the present price of cereals. Though the crop shortage will be tally 10 per cent compared with last year, present prices are being maintained by a demand for milling wheat that must necessarily be curtailed as soon as millers obtain what they want. 'My candid opinion is that farmers are missing an opportunity in not disposing of their holdings at present prices,' Peterson declared. 'It is more or less of a gamble in holding for higher prices. Australia and Argentine crops are as yet an unknown quantity. If these two countries produce anything like they did last season, this country cannot look forward to much of the South African trade.'
“It is more or less of a gamble in holding for higher prices.”
Wheat remains the lifeblood of the Walla Walla valley economy. Peterson’s analysis serves as a reminder that local farmers have been tethered to volatile international commodity markets and global supply chains for over a century.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.