Bread and Water  

Strangely enough, after posting about drought in eastern Australia and southern Spain yesterday today's news reveals the impact of this on grain production.

In Spain - "Spain had the driest September-to-March period this year since records started in 1947, and there has been very little rain since then. European traders said on Monday prices were rising because of expected extra demand from Spain. Like its parched neighbour Portugal, Spain has asked the European Union for drought relief."

In Australia - The New South Wales Farmers Association (NSWFA) says an expected low yield for winter crops will be disastrous for the state's farmers. Australia's official commodities forecaster predicts crops in the state to be less than half what they were last year. The NSWFA's Ray Johnson, said "You could well start to see an increase in food prices, particularly meat such as poultry and pig meat, if we have to go down the line of importation of grains as we had to in the drought in 2002".