Perilous Times and Climate Change
Global food shortage fears as Russia extends wheat ban
Vladimir Putin has announced Russia will not lift a ban on grain
exports before next year’s harvest, extending the embargo for another
year, sparking fears over a global food shortage.
Published: 6:00AM BST 03 Sep 2010
Global food shortage fears as Russia extends wheat ban
A combine harvests on a field in a village 50km south of Moscow. The
drought in Russia has led to rising world grain prices Photo: GETTY
The Russian prime minister said that it was “necessary to note that we
will only be able to consider lifting the grain export ban after next
year’s harvest ... and we have clarity on the balances”.
His announcement came after deadly protests in Mozambique and the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organisation calling an emergency meeting to
discuss the shortages.
The export ban is aimed at keeping the Russian domestic market well
supplied with grain after Russia, which the world’s third largest wheat
exporter last year when it sold 21.4 million tonnes of grain, after the
country suffered a record drought which destroyed a quarter of its
harvest.
Forest and brush fires flared up again on Thursday, killing two people
and burning down more than 160 houses and buildings. Mr Putin is keen
to avoid any signs of social unrest ahead of elections due in 2012.
The export ban from such a key global exporter sent wheat prices to
231.5 euros a tonne, just short of last month’s two-year high of 236
euros, sparking worries of a crisis in global food supplies.
A rise in the price of state-controlled food, water and electricity
prices have sparked protests in Mozambique where seven people have been
killed and hundreds left injured after clashes with police. The price
of a loaf of bread is due to rise by 25 per cent on September 6.
The Rome-based FAO said that their emergency meeting was called due to
“an enormous number” of inquiries over concerns “about a possible
repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis”
Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO, said: “This is quite serious. Two
years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance”.
The rising prices around the world have raised concerns about a return
to the political instability in 2008, when Haiti, Kenya and Somalia
were among those that saw rioting over the cost of living.