麦价格出现了50多年来最急剧的上涨，原因是俄罗斯的一场旱灾令人越来越担心可能会造成全球小麦短缺。
在俄罗斯的一些重灾区，酷热和干旱导致半数小麦绝收。自6月初以来，全球最富饶的小麦产地之一俄罗斯的减产将价格推高了62%，上个月则出现了自1959年以来最大幅度、最快速度的价格上涨。
周一，小麦价格一度涨至每蒲式耳7美元以上。目前处于2008年9月以来的最高水平；当时小麦供应不足引发了一场全球粮食危机，造成数个国家发生了骚乱。
位于芝加哥的大宗商品公司Hightower Report农业专家罗根萨克(Terry Roggensack)说，这是在很短时间内出现的大幅上涨，这是一个混乱的时期。
尽管小麦价格仍然远低于2008年的水平，全球小麦储量也大大超过两年前，但2008年小麦短缺的阴影却凸显出来，特别是对于那些无法自给自足的国家来说。
上周末，全球最大的小麦进口国埃及买进18万吨小麦，是两周内的第二次购买，购买量大于最初的计划。中国则在警告当地企业不要囤积小麦。在印度，官员们任由曾经充裕的小麦储备烂在田里，造成很多人挨饿，并推高了当地小麦价格。
各 国都在争取避免再次发生类似于2008年的情况；当时埃及、海地和巴基斯坦等国因粮食价格上涨而爆发了骚乱。曾有一度，世界银行(World Bank)说，大宗商品成本的上涨造成粮食价格在三年内涨了83%。在2008年晚些时候、2009年金融危机的最黑暗日子里，大宗商品价格暴跌。不过， 即使是在当时，一些分析人士仍预测，当经济复苏的时候，粮食危机会卷土重来。
俄罗斯小麦减产带来的影响还要更大，部分原因是全球很多小麦出口国的粮食生产都遭遇了一些问题。加拿大等主要出口国遭遇了过度的降雨，而澳大利亚则在抗击蝗灾。欧盟一些小麦产区也遭受了旱灾。
这些问题令全球小麦市场措手不及。就在6月份，小麦价格仍处于九个月来的低点，较年初跌了近21%。如今，小麦价格涨了28%，不过仍仅仅略高于2008年高点的一半；当时的小麦价格接近每蒲式耳13美元。
周一，9月份交割的小麦期货价格收于每蒲式耳6.9325美元，上涨4.8%。
在发达国家，不断上涨的小麦价格可能会挤压食品生产商，它们可能会考虑将成本转嫁给消费者。
巴克莱(Barclays)分析师拉沙(Andrew Lazar)说，这些食品公司将成本转嫁给消费者，很可能会造成通货膨胀加剧。
小麦市场的戏剧性走势还可能重新点燃有关投资者在大宗商品市场所扮演角色的争论。周一，世界银行说，投机者可能是粮食价格波动的短期推动者，不过它也说，供需基本面将最终决定粮食价格走势。可可、咖啡和猪胸肉的价格最近也大幅上涨。
中国国家发展和改革委员会上周警告说，将禁止被查出存在囤积粮食行为的企业参与国家粮食收购。发改委呼吁各企业严格执行粮食最低收购价。
发改委说，一些企业盲目“跟风”抬级抬价。
Wheat prices have staged the most drastic rise in more than 50 years, as a drought in Russia fuels growing worries that it could lead to a global shortage of the grain.
Harsh heat and a lack of rain in Russia have killed half of the crop in some hard-hit areas. The slump in production in one of the world's most fertile breadbaskets has pushed prices up 62% since early June, and last month saw the biggest and fastest increase since 1959.
Wheat prices, which briefly rose above $7 a bushel on Monday, are now at their highest level since September 2008, when low supplies of the grain caused a global food crisis that led to riots in several countries.
'That's a massive increase in a very short time frame,' said Terry Roggensack, an agriculture specialist at the Hightower Report, a Chicago-based commodities firm. 'It is a scramble period.'
While prices are still well below the levels of 2008 and global stockpiles are much stronger than they were two years ago, the specter of the 2008 shortage looms large, particularly for countries that can't depend on their own production.
This weekend, Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer, bought 180,000 metric tons of wheat, its second purchase in the past two weeks and more than it had initially planned. China is warning local businesses against grain hoarding. In India, officials have allowed once-plentiful stockpiles to rot in fields, leaving many people hungry and driving up local prices.
All are seeking to avoid a repeat of 2008, when Egypt, Haiti and Pakistan were among countries hit by riots over rising food costs. At one point, the World Bank said higher commodity costs had pushed up food prices 83% in three years. Commodity prices plunged amid the darkest days of the financial crisis later that year and in 2009. But even then, some analysts predicted a food crisis would return when the economy recovered.
Russia's troubles are having an even bigger impact in part because many of the world's wheat exporters have experienced some crop problems. Big exporters like Canada have struggled with excessive rains, while Australia has battled locusts. Patches of wheat-growing regions in the European Union also have been struck by drought.
The problems have caught the global wheat market off-guard. As recently as June, prices were at a nine-month low and down nearly 21% for the year. Now, they are up 28%, though they are still only a little over half the peak in 2008, when prices neared $13 a bushel.
On Monday, wheat for September delivery closed up 4.8% at $6.9325 a bushel.
In the developed world, the rising prices could pinch food makers, which may hesitate to push the cost to consumers.
'It would likely take greater inflation for these food companies to pass these costs onto their customers,' said Andrew Lazar, a Barclays analyst.
The wheat-market drama also is likely to reignite the debate over the role that investors play in the commodities markets. On Monday, the World Bank said speculators may be a short-term driver of volatility in food prices, though it said supply-and-demand fundamentals ultimately triumph. Prices of cocoa, coffee and pork bellies have also recently soared.
China's top economic-policy planning agency warned last week that it will bar businesses found guilty of hoarding grains from state grain purchases. The National Development and Reform Commission called for businesses to strictly observe minimum purchase prices.
'Some businesses are blindly 'following the wind' in raising prices,' the commission said.