‘Buckwheat Panic’ Gripping Russian Consumers

Buckwheat is the ultimate comfort food for Russians, AFP reports, and as Western economic sanctions persist, the grain is disappearing from the shelves in a hoarding craze that’s being dubbed the “buckwheat panic.”

The devastating combination of falling oil prices and sanctions, Russia is seeing a disastrous depreciation of the ruble and catastrophic inflation. Everything is getting more expensive by the day, including chicken, meat and cheese, and now buckwheat.

Buckwheat “is not just a food, it is a national idea, ” Russia’s leading business daily, AFP cited a Vedomosti editorial.

Buckwheat is a traditional Russian staple, it was there before potatoes.

Due to a drought, Russia’s buckwheat harvest fell this year to just under 600, 000 tons, compared with the normal 700, 000 tons, according to AFP.

“In Moscow, people see a television news report about a buckwheat crisis in Penza”—a city 350 miles away—and “in just four days they buy up buckwheat stocks that would normally be enough for two months, ” the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily wrote.

One supermarket chain in Saint Petersburg imposed a five-pack limit for buckwheat purchases.

Despite the fact that buckwheat is a domestic product, not affected by sanctions or the falling ruble, the price of a packet of buckwheat rose from around 30 rubles to 50 rubles (93 cents) in Moscow—double that in other areas.

“People store up on buckwheat—which can be kept for a long time—because they do not know what to expect from the sanctions, ” a trader at a Saint Petersburg food market told AFP.

So far, prices in Russia have gone up 30 to 40 percent for basic foods such as eggs, pork, chicken, frozen fish and sausage.