First, it was Sriracha. And now oats are in short supply because of a drought in North American oat-growing regions last year. As a result, there is likely to be a price increase coming our way on all oat products. I’m not proud of it, but my first thought when I read this news was, “Oat no. Oat no. Oat nonononono.” (As I’ve stated before, I do realize that I’m a dork.)
But seriously, if you’ve been living on Earth for the past six months or so, you’ve probably been feeling the effects of this relentless climb to the top of Price Mountain. And the latest product to see prices skyrocket could be oats. So you may want to stock up on your favorite oat milks, cereals, and granola bars sooner rather than later, while they’re still at their normal price.
Definitely do NOT panic though. Randy Strychar, president of Oatinformation, says there may be hope for us yet, Food Business News reports. “Records showed that North American soil moisture in the oat-growing regions had improved thanks to heavy snowpacks from last winter,” he said. So it seems like the problem is at least improving this year. Yay! As someone who generally likes their oats wet instead of dry, this is momentous news.
Strychar did add that this wet soil could lead to issues with late seeding which could mean a smaller oat crop, but Stats Canada predicted a 16.6% increase in Canadian seeded oat area in 2022 (which I think means more land with oats planted on it). So ultimately, Strychar said this could mean Canadian Oat output will remain “average at best.” That still seems like a win to me. Average is way better than “shortage.”
So if there are any takeaways from this, it’s: 1) Buy your staple oat products when you see them on shelves, 2) Canada mounties will (hopefully) ride in on their Canadian moose-stallions with big bags of oats, and poutine, and save Christmas, and, 3) I finally get why Canadians say “aboat” instead of “about.”
