Prices for soft white wheat are at their highest levels in decades, the result of falling global production and increased demand for grain. That's got retailers east of the Cascades hoping for a surge in buying this fall, Greater Spokane Inc. CEO Rich Hadley tells the Spokane Journal of Business: "Just like any citizen in our community who gets a raise, they [farmers] tend to find more opportunities to shop. That spends around in the economy at least two times beyond the first spending."

As the harvest wound down in August, the prices for soft white wheat for fall delivery were flirting with $7.25 a bushel, or roughly $265 per metric ton.

The reason: lower production and rising demand. Drought reduced the Australian soft white harvest from 26 million metric tons to 10 million. Last year's Midwest harvest also was weak. And with the high demand for corn among ethanol producers, all corn users who can use wheat instead are buying it, according to Washington State University farm economists.

For comparison, last year's average price was about $4.25 a bushel, or roughly $155 a ton. That in itself was considered an unusually high price, and prompted many farmers to enter into their futures contracts for the 2007 crop early. Colfax farmer Randy Seuss told the Journal of Business: "Who ever heard of prices over $4?"

The last time prices were anywhere close to this level was the 1995-'96 marketing year, when they topped $200 a ton, according to the Washington Wheat Commission.