Gagner wheat with oats. And to satiety, what is more. The investors of the Swedish company Oatly understood this well. After sowing a few seeds in the capital of the company, which produces substitutes for milk, yogurt or oat-based ice cream, they picked the fruits when it went public in May. The company, in fact, raised $ 1.4 billion (1.2 billion euros) at the time of its listing on Wall Street.
Among the lucky winners is the star American television presenter Oprah Winfrey, actress Natalie Portman and rapper Jay-Z, who entered the capital in 2020. They have turned the peck of oats into ringing and stumbling gold.
In June, investor appetite made the stock jump 60%. Oatly then reached a valuation of $ 16 billion. Dizzying, compared to 2020 sales of $ 420 million. Oats drink whey. Since then, the vegetable souffle has deflated a bit, with the title of the darling of Wall Street now trading below its introductory price. A reaction linked to the difficulty of the Swedish company to meet the demand of its customers – stores as coffee chains. Thus, the highly anticipated launch of Oatly products at Starbucks made a splash.
Pressure on suppliers
This consumer craze for plant substitutes for dairy products and meat shines the spotlight on a cereal qualified as secondary in our latitudes, and puts pressure on suppliers. Especially since, on the agricultural side, the tension is just as strong. The drought that hit Canada this summer destroyed nearly 40% of the crop. However, this country is the second largest producer in the world. The vagaries of the weather also affected the United States and, to a lesser extent, Sweden and Finland. Result: the price of oats is racing. He even broke, Monday, October 4, a historic record, crossing $ 6 a bushel on the Chicago Stock Exchange.
Oat surfaces have been irresistibly eaten away by those of wheat and barley as the horse-drawn carriages are discarded.
In France, in 2021, Mother Nature was less devious than in 2020. As a result, production increased by 20% to 467,000 tonnes. A straw, however, in view of the 36.7 million tonnes of soft wheat harvested this summer. Oat surfaces have been irresistibly eaten away by those of wheat and barley as the horse-drawn carriages are discarded. From now on, this cereal is only distributed in small portions in the animal feeder. But, in the breakfast bowls, she comes back at a gallop. And sometimes, under organic label.
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