The prices of many everyday staples such as bread, flour and beer are set to rise sharply as Russia imposed a ban on grain exports, triggering panic in commodities markets and sending wheat prices to their highest since the 2008 food crisis.
Vladimir Putin, Russian prime minister, announced the ban, starting next week, on all the country's grain exports after a severe drought devastated crops and wildfires spread across the country.
The move, which caught traders and food producers by surprise, pushed the price of wheat to its highest in two years and evoked memories of the last time the then Soviet Union suffered a catastrophic crop failure in 1972.