Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade rose anew on Friday, a day after Russia extended its ban on wheat exports until late 2011, even as the prospects of higher food prices sparked riots in Mozambique.
Wheat for December delivery rose as much as 1.5% to US$7.2475 a bushel, advancing for a third day and taking this week’s gain to 4.3%. Russia, suffering from its worst drought in at least a half century, started an export ban Aug. 15 that was scheduled to end Dec. 31.
Wheat traded in Chicago has doubled since June wing to Russia’s drought, flooding in Canada and crop losses in Kazakhstan and the European Union.
Higher prices, combined with rallies in corn, rice and livestock, have re-ignited fears of a return to the food crisis of 2008, which sparked riots from Haiti to Egypt. Residents of Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, were on strike for a second day yesterday in a protest over higher food and utility prices.
Wheat prices are still quite a way away from the peaks reached in 2008. Then, wheat futures traded in Chicago had reached a record US$13.495 and rice rose as high as US$25.07 per 100 pounds in Chicago.