Word: bushell
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...world surplus was keeping wheat prices low, and it seemed both good international policy and smart business to set fixed prices for world wheat sales. Roughly, the agreement protected importing nations by giving them the right to buy fixed quotas of wheat at a ceiling price of $1.80 a bushel. Exporters were protected by a floor of $1.50 a bushel (later reduced to $1.20). Everybody seemed taken care...
...signers of the agreement turned out to be poor guessers. The war in Korea sent prices skyrocketing far above the $1.80-a-bushel ceiling. To fulfill its commitments, the Federal Government had to pay U.S. wheat exporters a subsidy averaging 62? a bushel-the difference between the export price and the U.S. market price. The agreement, when it expires next July, will have cost the U.S. almost $600 million in subsidies, which are now running at the rate of $130 million annually...
...agreement, the U.S. tried to get the ceiling lifted to $2.50 a bushel and the floor price to $1.90. After months of bargaining, most of the member nations agreed to a compromise of a $2.05 maximum and a $1.55 minimum. But Britain, as the biggest wheat importer, insisted that it could not go higher than $2 a bushel, and refused to sign. Perhaps it thought it could strike a better bargain with Argentina, which has a wheat surplus and has never joined the pact...
Under the new terms, U.S. subsidies will be cut to 31? a bushel-still painful enough to raise howls in the Senate, which must ratify the pact. But finding a market for the U.S. wheat surplus might well be even more costly without any agreement, since other countries might dump wheat at prices far below the proposed floor prices...
...commodity markets, where falling prices have worried the Administration, there was some cheer last week. Wholesale pork prices went up and beef prices steadied. As dust storms whipped the winter-wheat areas of the Southwest, wheat prices scooted up 4½ to 6½? a bushel; corn, helped by news that the Government would step up purchases, also moved higher. The rally in grain prices was the best in two months...