MOSCOW, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday because of unprecedented environmental conditions Russia will not export grain until next year.
"Yesterday I signed the government's decision to extend the moratorium on grain exports until July 1, 2011," Putin said during a meeting on agriculture in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Russia went through the worst heat wave in its history resulting in severe drought and forest fires destroying 32 million acres of the country's grain crop, RIA Novosti reported.
Putin banned Russia's exportation of grain triggering a rise in grain prices even as about 60 million tons had been gathered this year, RIA Novosti said.
"This is the volume that was actually forecasted. Now we know for sure what resources we possess, what the grain balance will look like," he said.
Putin said there would be enough grain for domestic consumption, not export.
