Cereal harvest collapse: May frost in Russia has “disastrous consequences”

Decline in grain harvest
May frost in Russia has “disastrous consequences”.

May 8, 2024, 10:14 pm

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Russia is one of the world’s largest grain producers and exporters. This May, foggy nights are causing problems for farmers. Millions of hectares of harvested land remain unusable.

In Russia, cold weather in May caused severe damage in two important grain-producing regions. “Frosts in early May had devastating consequences,” Igor Artamonov, governor of the Lipetsk region, said in a telegram. “We should know that this year’s harvest will be much smaller than the previous one.”

Meanwhile, in neighboring Voronezh, a state of emergency has been declared, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. “According to preliminary information, the area of ​​dead or severely damaged vegetation has increased to over 265,000 hectares,” it said. The damage was done by two cold spells in early May, in which the temperature dropped to minus five degrees. Russia is one of the world’s largest grain producers and exporters.

It was said that the state of emergency frees farmers from having to meet target quotas to get subsidies. The governor said declaring a state of emergency in Lipetsk was also being considered. Apart from cereals, other crops such as potato, sunflower, sugar beet and fruits are also grown in both regions. The extent to which they were affected by frost is not clear from the communications of the two regions.

However, it is almost certain that the grain harvest will be low this year. Even before the recent cold snap, the agriculture ministry said the 2024 harvest would fall by 145 to 132 million tonnes.

Agrarian power Russia used exports, particularly grain, to build dependencies and generate foreign currency vital for the production of war goods. The European Union also continues to be a customer. According to estimates, Russian wheat imports alone will double to 700,000 tonnes in the 2023/2024 season.