new delhi in a surprise move the government banned export of wheat thereby pushing up prices to new record highs prompted by a severe heatwave in most parts of the country that has cut harvest prospects the announcement marks a policy uturn by the government the ban is also being seen as a measure to control rising domestic prices retail inflation hit an eightyear high of 779 per cent in april driven by rising food and fuel pricesa few days back the centre had said that it was still targetting record exports of 10 million tonnes that would help compensate for ukraines reduced supply recently a commerce ministry statement had stated that india would send trade delegations to nine countries morocco tunisia indonesia the philippines thailand vietnam turkey algeria and lebanon to explore possibilities of boosting wheat shipmentsthe ban on exports comes amid disruption in global wheat supplies due to the ongoing war between russia and ukraine which are major exporters of the foodgrain indias move has further threatened to squeeze global wheat supplyhowever existing export sales covered by letters of credit and governmenttogovernment deals to meet food security needs will be allowed as a result of the ban us and european wheat futures climbed by nearly 6 per cent with the chicago market the global benchmark earlier reaching its daily trading limit and paris prices approaching alltime highsripple effects in other words indias heat wave is having ripple effects for the worlds food supply wheat prices have risen more than 60 per cent this year driven up by disruption from russias invasion of ukraine indias announcement drew sharp criticism from the group of seven industrialised nations agriculture ministers meeting in germany who said that such measures would worsen the crisis of rising commodity pricesif everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets that would worsen the crisis german agriculture minister cem ozdemir said at a press conference in stuttgartglobal buyers were banking on supplies from india which is the worlds secondbiggest wheat producer after exports from the black sea region plunged following russias invasion of ukraine around midfebruary before the ban india had aimed to ship a record 10 million tonnes this year however at least 10 to 15 per cent of the wheat crop was destroyed in the north the countrys most productive region due to extreme heat conditions which overtaxed the plant and prevented it from forming any grainlast month prime minister narendra modi told us president joe biden that india could step in to ease the global shortfall created by russias invasion of ukraine the two countries account for nearly a third of all global wheat exports the united nations food and agriculture organization has warned that the conflict could leave an additional 8 million to 13 million people undernourished by next yearheatwave hitting production indias wheat exports hit 87 million tonnes in the fiscal year ending in march with the government predicting record production levels some 122 million