Looking for money in a food boom
Who gains from high food prices? says The Economist in an editorial. Not food producers or retailers, who may or may not be able to pass on higher costs. In fact there “just aren’t many companies” that directly benefit, which means there are few places for investors to step in. A rare case was the public offering of Intrepid Potash, which makes fertilizer—its shares jumped 58 percent on the first day of trading. Couldn’t that mean grains are just “another bubble about to burst”? Probably not. Demand is outstripping supply, suggesting that “high food prices will be around for a while.” That’s good news if you run “a modestly profitable tractor or silo company.”
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