Three consecutive days of spring frost have inflicted heavy losses, as in 2021, in the orchards of the South-West, damage which will be partly compensated, the State having announced on Tuesday the release of emergency aid.

From Tarn-et-Garonne, "one of the most affected territories", Prime Minister Jean Castex promised "an emergency aid fund for an amount of 20 million euros" and the activation of the "fund National Agricultural Disasters".

“We will also reactivate the exceptional coverage of their social security contributions,” assured the head of government after visiting an 80% damaged farm in Cazes-Mondenard.

The Garonne valley, the Dordogne, certain regions of the East, the north of the Aquitaine region are particularly affected, said Jean Castex, who was accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie.

The frost affected less than half of the territory, according to Jérôme Lecou, ​​forecaster at Météo-France, while 90% of France was affected by frosts the previous night, worrying in particular arboriculturists.

Cash shortage 

“These are good measures, but what is missing is cash, immediately”, reacted the president of the Tarn-et-Garonne chamber of agriculture Alain Iches, estimating that the aid risked only arriving. 'at the end of the year.

Some are just receiving the aid corresponding to the damage in the spring of 2021, he says.

The damage in this department, in stone fruit plantations (plum, peach), is “certainly worse than last year”.

“We will be around 80% of losses linked to frost”, estimates the president of the chamber of agriculture, stressing that these figures are still to be refined.

The Agen prune sector suffered "a new blow", with damage "generalized over the entire PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) area" which "seems comparable to, or even greater than last year", according to a press release from the National Prune Interprofessional Office.

Supply disruption 

“While it is still too early to finely assess the losses, it is estimated that nearly 70% of the harvest is already compromised”, according to the sector, recalling that in 2021, marketing had been able to be maintained “ because of the stocks allowing to partly compensate for the loss of harvest”.

In 2022, “the disruption of supply is almost certain” and it is “the entire sector from upstream to downstream which is once again seriously affected by an episode which “should only happen once every every 30 years", but tends to repeat itself more often due to climate change.

The president of the Lot-et-Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, Serge Bousquet-Cassagne, is even more pessimistic: last year, “We lost 70% of the harvest, this year we will be at 80-90%” for plums and prunes.

According to him, the kiwis, whose buds were protected by a water sprinkler system when the frost arrived, were also affected, but suffered less damage.

However, "the cost of watering is staggering with the current price of energy which has increased by 60%, I am for 200 liters of diesel each night", testified Jean-Marc Poigt, who chairs Kiwi Adour (400 Label Rouge producers).

Last year, after an exceptional episode of frost in April, the harvests of apricots, cherries and pears had been cut by half compared to the average of the previous five years, according to the statistical service of the Ministry of Agriculture. .

Wine production had also fallen to a “historically low level”: -19% over one year and -14% compared to the average of the last five years.

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