(Bloomberg) -- Russia is assessing crop damage after an unseasonal sub-zero snap hit key wheat and oilseeds areas this month following an early and unusually warm spring.

Some crops in the so-called black soil belt, including the Voronezh, Tambov and Lipetsk regions, have already died due to the freezing temperatures, local authorities reported. In Voronezh alone, as much as 265,000 hectares (654,830 acres) were damaged by May 9, according to officials.

An emergency was declared in those regions — where wheat, oilseeds and corn are grown — as temperatures dipped as low as -6C for several nights over the last two weeks.

Russia is the world’s top wheat exporter, and some estimates for this year’s harvest have already been pared down, pushing benchmark futures in Chicago to the highest levels since August. While the impacted area represents just one part of the country’s total plantings, the frosty weather could compound the challenges for crops that have also faced a dry spell this spring. 

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“The situation looks alarming throughout the European territory of the country,” Dmitry Rylko, general director of the Institute for Agricultural Market Studies, known as IKAR, told Interfax news agency this week. While there are no firm estimates of losses yet, the damage has been “quite significant for many crops.”

Last week, IKAR lowered the country’s 2024-25 wheat harvest estimate to 91 million tons, below an earlier forecast of 93 million tons. Russia’s total grain output is also seen lower.

The recent frost has impacted not only grains, but other crops, including oilseeds. Russia may lose a third of its fruit crop because of the bad weather, state-run newspaper Rossiyaskaya Gazeta reported Thursday, citing experts.

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