Friday, July 15, 2022
CapitalPress.com 3
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group File
Grain fills a semitrailer.
Wheat prices fall
to pre-war levels
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Wheat
prices
have
dropped to the level they
were before the Rus-
sia-Ukraine war began, mar-
ket analysts say, citing a lack
of demand.
Soft white wheat is $9
per bushel on the Portland
market, down from $11 to
$11.50 per bushel a month
ago.
“A drop going into
Northern Hemisphere har-
vest isn’t super surpris-
ing,” said Byron Behne,
senior merchant at North-
west Grain Growers in
Walla Walla, Wash. “Get-
ting below the price of
wheat prior to the start of
the war while the war’s still
going on is pretty surpris-
ing, though.”
“We’ve had a major cor-
rection,” said Dan Steiner,
grains merchant at Morrow
County Grain Growers in
Oregon. “I think this mar-
ket has got to go down to
find some demand.”
Last week, the U.S.
exported 18,000 bush-
els of soft white wheat.
The industry needs to ship
roughly 3 million bushels
per week, Steiner said.
“We’ve got a crop com-
ing off, and it’s going to be
a crop — I’m not going to
say a bumper crop, but it’s
going to be nice — and we
Byron
Behne
Dan
Steiner
don’t really have any sales
to put it against,” he said.
In a normal year, 25%
of the newest crop would
already be marketed by
July 1, but Steiner said this
year it’s about 15% mar-
keted. That’s roughly 22
million bushels, 10% of an
average crop, that needs to
hit the cash market in the
next month and a half, he
said.
“Number one, we had
tight supplies; number two,
we had high-priced sup-
plies,” said Darin Newsom,
a market analyst in Omaha,
Neb. “Now we’ve just got
supplies with nowhere to
go.”
Because it’s an election
year, the federal govern-
ment could step in and buy
10 million bushels to donate
in food aid. That would pro-
vide a shock to the market,
Steiner said.
“That kind of thing —
totally plausible, could hap-
pen — would turn this thing
right around,” he said. “We
have to find some demand.
We have to.”
He points to the high
price of freight for U.S.
wheat compared to compet-
ing countries, and a strong
U.S. dollar.
“We now have some of
the cheapest wheat in the
world, but you have to put a
big fat asterisk next to that,”
Steiner said. “The exchange
rate is backwards for exports
right now. If that trend con-
tinues or stays in place, it’s
going to make it that much
harder.”
Steiner said prices could
continue to drop, particu-
larly in the next six weeks.
Behne’s been expecting
a rebound at some point,
but said prices dropped
by another dollar while he
anticipated a bounce.
Newsom doesn’t see
prices dropping much far-
ther, but said they could
go about $1.50 per bushel
lower.
“That seems an extreme,
but it’s certainly a possibil-
ity,” he said. “If we see that
demand develop ... there’s
a chance we could go up.
We’re not going to get back
to where we were a cou-
ple months ago. That’s just
not going to happen. Or, it
shouldn’t happen.”
“Wheat is grown for only
one reason, and that’s to turn
it into cash,” Steiner said.
“We’ve got to find some-
body who’s got money who
wants to pay for it.”
Oregon Department of Agriculture
An adult emerald ash borer.
Invasive emerald ash borer found in
Oregon – first sighting on West Coast
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
FOREST GROVE, Ore.
— The emerald ash borer,
an invasive wood-boring
beetle that infests and kills
North American ash trees,
has been found in Oregon.
The discovery was the
first known sighting on
the West Coast, according
to Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
The beetle was found on
June 30 by Dominic Maze,
an invasive species biologist
for the City of Portland.
Maze was in Forest
Grove, Ore., waiting to pick
his kids up from summer
camp, when he noticed sev-
eral unhealthy-looking ash
trees. Upon closer examina-
tion, he recognized the dis-
tinctive D-shaped holes that
adult emerald ash borers
make as they exit an infested
tree.
“When my kids arrived,
I asked them to look for
adult beetles,” said Maze.
“My son promptly found
one crawling on him. Know-
ing how many millions of
ash trees across the country
these beetles have killed, I
felt like I was going to throw
up.”
Maze
was
rightly
worried.
The notorious emer-
ald ash borer — native to
Asia — has left widespread
destruction in its path across
the U.S., so its arrival on the
West Coast concerns biolo-
gists. ODA calls the emerald
ash borer the most destruc-
tive forest pest in North
America.
According to a 2022
study in the academic jour-
nal Sustainability, since it
was first found near Detroit,
Mich., in 2002, the beetle
has killed more than 8 bil-
lion native ash trees.
The beetles have infested
much of Canada and the
U.S., spreading out from the
Midwest.
Native North American
ash trees are not resistant
to emerald ash borers, so
nearly all infected trees
will prematurely die if
left untreated.
State officials say Maze
played a crucial role in alert-
ing the state to his discov-
ery so that agencies can try
to track and curb the beetle’s
spread.
After finding the emerald
ash borer in Forest Grove,
Maze immediately called
the Oregon Department of
Forestry’s Forest Health
Unit to report the sighting.
ODF forest entomologist
Christine Buhl drove to the
site and identified an adult
emerald ash borer, known
for its metallic, shiny green
color. Her identification was
later verified by two more
invasive species specialists.
Within 48 hours of the
discovery, officials cut down
and chipped the infested
trees.
Officials urge the pub-
lic to learn what an emer-
ald ash borer looks like and
report sightings online at
the Oregon Invasive Spe-
cies Council hotline. More
information can be found on
ODA’s Emerald Ash Borer
webpage.