he baking industry may need to adjust their budgets to account for further rises in the cost of maize.
The cost of agricultural commodities has been rising for some time, with corn/maize leading the way – trading firm Rabobank reported this week that the price per bushel has risen by ten per cent so far this year.
However, maize supplies look set to take another hit, after it was revealed that unseasonably cold weather in northern Mexico has decimated the country's crop, the BBC reports.
The state of Sinaola is a big producer of maize, and officials believe that the cold weather there has robbed the country of 16 per cent of its annual harvest.
Coupled with floods in Queensland and droughts in China, further restrictions on maize supply will surely push commodity prices even higher.
In a bid to reduce the damage done by the weather, Mexico's president Felipe Calderon has promised to provide assistance.
"It is not an ordinary catastrophe or the simple loss of a harvest, but an emergency situation that demands a clear and forceful response from the authorities," the news provider reports him as saying.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the baking industry includes:
