Prices of bread, a food staple for many Armenians, look set to grow further in Armenia in the coming days amid a continuing rise in the cost of wheat in international markets, reported Armenialiberty.org.

The price of flour sold in wholesale markets in Yerevan has risen by about 10 percent in recent days. Some bread retailers across the city have already adjusted their prices accordingly.

Flour prices already soared by more than 20 percent last summer as a result of a severe drought in Russia, Armenia's leading wheat supplier. The Russian government banned wheat exports in early August, citing heavy damage to grain crops across the country.

The ban is seen as one of the reasons why global wheat supply has remained tight since then. Among other factors are concerns about crops in top producing countries
after adverse weather, including dryness in the United States.

In the European Union, the world's second-biggest wheat exporter, prices doubled in the 12 months to January 18. European milling wheat futures are now approaching record-high levels registered during the 2008 global food crisis.

"If Mother Nature is unfavorable, which is what it is doing at the moment, we are going to prolong the agony and we have not necessarily seen the peak," said James Dunsterville, head analyst with Geneva-based Agrinews, told Reuters news agency last week.

"On Friday, the international price of wheat reached $330 per ton," Samvel Avagian, an independent economic analyst in Yerevan, said on Monday. He said wheat costs $400 million by the time it reaches the Armenian border.

According to Avagian, this is what is primarily making it more expensive in Armenia. Local farmers meet less than half of the country's wheat demand.