Rise in price of grain felt around the world

An increase in the price of grain after a drought in Russia has been felt around the world as businesses that rely on the commodity have been forced to absorb the rising costs.

While some businesses have raised their own prices to try to stay in the black, others have let the commodity price increase eat into their profit margin by refusing to charge customers more in a global economy that has almost everybody tightening their purse strings.

Canada's CBC News reports on the story of Jessey Sahdra, the co-owner of a bagel shop in Toronto, who refused to raise the price of his products, even when the cost of a bag of flour rose by CAN$3.

"It's hard," Sahdra admitted. "Business is the same but now I am suffering."

While the increasing costs may be a burden in the industrial world, they can mean the difference between a meal and going hungry - even life and death - in the developing world.

In Mozambique, a 30 percent increase in the price of bread triggered violent riots that cost an estimated US$3 million in damage. The riots left seven dead and 288 wounded when police opened fire on a crowd of thousands of protestors who were burning tires and looting food warehouses. The bread price hikes coincided with increased costs for necessities like water and electricity in the country.

"The government … can't understand or doesn't want to understand that this is a protest against the higher cost of living," Alice Mabota of the Mozambican League of Human Rights told Portugal's Lusa news agency.