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Agricultural commodities rose to multi-year highs yesterday following crude oils surge to $100 a barrel as traders anticipated higher demand from the expanding global biofuels industry. In Chicago, wheat jumped 16 cents to $9.31 a bushel, 59 cents below its all-time high, while soyabeans rose to $12.38, a fresh 34-year high, and corn traded within touching distance of its recent 11-year high. In Paris, rapeseed prices rose to record levels, up 1.5 per cent to 444.75 a tonne, while Malaysian palm oil futures also hit a record $961 a tonne yesterday. As grains and oil seeds are key feedstuffs for biofuels, the oil price rise has exerted a huge push on agricultural commodities, which enjoyed their best returns for almost 30 years in 2007. The SP GSCI agricultural commodities index returned 31 per cent last year, its best performance since 1981. Support is also coming from population growth and demand for animal feed. This combination of food, feed and fuel demand for crops has created an upward shift in the trend demand growth for agriculture products, said Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs. He said global biofuel demand could increase from 10bn gallons a year in 2005 to 25bn gallons annually by 2010, an annualised growth rate of 20 per cent. As a result of supply disappointments and rising demand, stocks have fallen to historic lows in many agricultural markets, leaving prices very susceptible to upward price shocks. | 
