Buckwheat prices: Panic buying following a poor harvest has sent buckwheat prices rising by an average of 27.5% across Russia since November and by as much as 80% in some regions, according to RIA Novosti. Prices started to rise at the end of October on reports of a bad harvest in the Altai region in Siberia, which produces about 40% of Russia’s output. The run on buckwheat “indicates people’s expectations of an upcoming economic crisis, to which consumers are always keenly attuned,” according to Natalia Kolupaeva, a retail analyst at Raiffeisenbank. It had less to do with its importance as a staple food than consumers looking to stock up on reserves in the face of growing inflation rates, she added. The Moscow Times