2024-05-04 23:51:20
This year, instead of 138,000 tons of fruit, about 30,000 tons of fruit will be harvested in the Czech Republic due to severe frosts. Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný (KDU-ČSL) said this on Thursday after a meeting with representatives of fruit growers, winegrowers and forest nurseries. According to him, the Ministry of Agriculture is ready to activate a program for solving risks and crises in agriculture for all growers damaged by the frost, and will present the material to the government on Tuesday.
According to Výbrýný, the priority will be fruit growers, for whom the minister also wants to focus on growers whose damages exceed 50 percent. The worst fruit harvest since the 90s was in 2011, when it amounted to 101 thousand tons.
The Agrarian Chamber is demanding money from the Ministry of Agriculture for other sectors affected by the frost. According to the chamber, for example, growers of vegetables, potatoes, classic field crops or sugarcane are significantly damaged, and forest nurseries were also affected by the April frosts.
The President of the Agrarian Chamber, Jan Doležal, asked the Minister of Agriculture in a letter for the maximum possible extraordinary financial support. Excellent on the X network said that he learned about the letter from the media, and moreover just before the briefing, therefore he called such behavior unfair. The spokeswoman of the Agrarian Chamber, Barbora Pánková, said that the letter was sent on Thursday morning via the standard route so that the minister had the documents as soon as possible.
According to Výborný, the program for solving risks and crises in agriculture has been activated three times so far, namely in 2017, 2019 and 2021. It is not yet clear how much money the growers will share from it. Excellent’s ambition is for it to be 70 to 100 million crowns, he said. At the same time, the Ministry is seeking support from the European Union. He is currently preparing an application for it, Výborný added.
According to Výborný, the amount of support that growers will receive will also depend on whether they were insured against frost. “The program, as it is notified, assumes that entities that did not have commercial insurance against frost will be reduced to 50 percent of the rate as part of the implementation,” said Výborný.
“If someone has taken out insurance, it’s not something that should have a negative impact on state support. But on the contrary, those who have taken this step responsibly will be partially favored,” added the minister. According to him, fruit, with the exception of vines, can currently be insured in the Czech Republic for apples, pears, strawberries and blueberries. For growers damaged by the frost, the ministry is also considering supporting operational loans through the Support and Guarantee Agricultural and Forestry Fund, Výborný said.
The chairman of the Fruit Union, Martin Ludvík, said that he sees a shift in the negotiations with Výborný about helping the sector. Where, on the other hand, improvement has not occurred, according to him, is the possible support of employment in companies that focus on storing, sorting and packing fruit for retail chains.
“What we are really talking about here is the support of short-term employment, as it was during covid, so that the employees in these few companies important for the supply of Czech fruit to trade chains can be maintained,” said Ludvík.
Výborný discussed the kurzarbeit program, which was supposed to prevent layoffs due to covid, with Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL). “This program is for the effects of high energy prices, not for frost,” said Výborný.
According to Ludvík, fruit growers do not yet have definitive data on the damage caused. “We can’t update Moravia at the moment because it has been partially damaged in most areas and we have to give it some time now to know if the fry will hold,” he said. According to him, however, it is certain that in the Czech Republic there is practically nothing left of the stone fruit crop, in the case of apples, probably about a tenth of the crop survived the frost.
The owner of Hanč farma Vraňany, Milan Hanč, said before Thursday’s meeting that the damage to the strawberry crop in the whole of the Czech Republic amounts to approximately 50 million crowns. “The damage is quite significant, but compared to last week it has decreased a bit,” he said.