By Michael Hirtzer and Alix Steel
Bloomberg
Soaring food costs driven by supply-chain snarls and other disruptions hurting the agriculture industry will prove “transitory” and should dissipate in time, says the top executive of giant crops trader Cargill Inc.
Prices for foods ranging from breakfast cereals to meat have continued marching upwards from the initial surge during the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, thanks in part to supply-chain disruptions. Recent incidents include Hurricane Ida in the U.S., which damaged a Cargill port terminal in Louisiana, and a European energy crisis that’s crimping the continent’s food production. A labor shortage has even left a Cargill turkey facility in Virginia running at 70% capacity.