Russia will temporarily ban exports of grain and grain products due to the worsening drought, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
"I think it is expedient to temporarily ban exports of grain and grain products from Russia," Putin told a government meeting.
Putin's spokesman said the ban was effective from August 15, 2010.
Russia is suffering the worst heat wave in the 130 years since records began. The drought has forced the Agriculture Ministry to cut its 2010 grain forecast to 70-75 million tons from 90 million tons.
The government will distribute grain from the state intervention fund to regions suffering from the heatwave without auctions, Putin said. "We will not auction off grain, we will distribute it on according to requests from regions and the regions will have to help [farmers] in accordance with objective criteria developed by the Agriculture Ministry," Putin said.
Russia's grain intervention fund currently holds 9.5 million tons of grain.
MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti)