Yes last year twine went up $10 a bale. Usually twine will take big drop the year following a large increase, but that is not the case now. What has happened with sisal is there is increased demand for sisal rugs. The most expensive sisal fibers from African sisal were switched from AG twine to sisal rugs but the demand has exceeded the supply of the available African sisal. The European mills located in Portugal have moved their operations to Brazil because of the logistics of now having to use Brazilian sisal for the European markets. The sisal fibers used in baling twine take two years to grow so when demand increases it takes 2 years for the producers to catch up.
Any twine in stock now will be at a lower price than when the 2006 stock hits the market. Since we purchase thousands of bales of twine we purchase 6-9 months in advance. We have nothing to gain by selling a few bales of twine in stock now when we will receive $5 more for it in a few months.
Plastic twine is made from oil and oil prices have dramatically increased since last years twine raw materials were purchased. Depending on the plastic twine desired, it has gone up $3-5 for next years market.
This price increase will not affect the average small producer because they may use 5-10 bales of twine. What if you used 100 bales of twine? That would purchase $500 more of that cheap diesel fuel. Farmers need all the advantage they can get because they purchase retail and sell wholesale & work long hours in non-glamorous situations.
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