There’s an oat shortage–not good for OTLY or GIS; not good for food inflation in general
This year a drought hit oat farmers just in time to shape oat production nearly in half in Canada, the world’s largest oat exporter. In the United States, one of the top consumers of the grain used in everything from oat milk to Cheerios to granola bars, the harvest will be the smallest ever.
That has sent oat futures, up 2.1% on Friday, to an all-time high of $6.36 a bushel in a year when global food pries have already hit a decade’s high. That has hurt the share price of companies that produce oat-based products. General Mills (GIS), the maker of Cheerios, for example, has seen its stock price fall from $64.03 on June 4 to $61.70 at the close on October 11.
