bron: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business
3 September 2010
The summer heatwave destroyed crops in many parts of
The United Nations' food agency has called a special meeting of policy makers to discuss the recent rise in global food prices.
The announcement came after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin extended the country's ban on grain exports on Thursday.
This added to fears that prices of food staples would continue to rise.
The meeting will take place on 24 September, probably in
"In the past few weeks, global cereal markets experienced a sudden surge in international wheat prices on concerns over wheat shortages," the agency said.
"The purpose of holding the meeting is for exporting and importing countries to engage in constructive discussions on appropriate reactions to the current market situation."
Heatwave
Mr Putin did not say when exactly the Russian grain export ban, originally to run from 15 August to 31 December, would be lifted, but said that it would not be before next year's harvest had been reaped.
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LAST UPDATED AT 02 SEP 2010, 18:45 GMT
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The heatwave destroyed crops in many parts of the country, pushing food prices up.
This year's crop could be as low as 60 million tonnes, but
Other key grain producers have also reported shortages, causing the price of wheat to rise more than 50% since the beginning of July.
High food prices have triggered riots in
But despite concerns about rising prices, analysts say global grain supplies are more abundant than they were two years ago.
In 2007-08, severe food shortages sparked riots in countries across the world.