General Mills’ chief executive officer Ken Powell says the company expects food commodity prices to continue increasing by about 5% a year as demand from emerging markets rises. 


General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, says that commodity prices have gained about 5-6% a year for more than a decade, according to chief executive officer Ken Powell at a press conference with joint venture partner Nestle SA in Orbe, Switzerland.

“If you average it out, it’s about 5%, and so we think this is likely to continue,” he told journalists, saying the company assumed “mid-single digit” input cost inflation. “We were planning for this.”

General Mills has been trying to offset higher input costs by eliminating waste and improving productivity, Powell says. The company raised prices on about a quarter of its cereal products in November, and aims to minimize price increases, he says.

Source: www.bloomberg.com