Getting your player ready...
Americans can expect to pay slightly higher food prices next year because of expectations that an unseasonably hot summer damaged some of this year’s corn crop.
But the rise in grocery prices might not be severe because farmers are sitting on larger supplies ahead of the fall harvest, and demand for corn is falling.
High temperatures in key U.S. corn-growing states such as Kansas have damaged about 4 percent of the coming yield.
The price of corn jumped 26 cents to $7.14 a bushel after the U.S. Agriculture Department’s estimates were released. That’s almost twice the price paid last year. But it’s below the record $7.99 reached in June.
Corn is used in everything from beef to cereal to soft drinks.
