In Castries, in the Hérault, Sébastien (the first name has been changed), owner of 20 hectares of vines, lost, in April, almost all of his harvest in the unprecedented frost episode which hit several hundred thousands of hectares of crops. Although it is covered by comprehensive climate insurance, compensation for its losses promises to be extremely low. Too many bad years have come and gone. “Between 1991 and 2012, we never used the insurance we had taken out. Since 2012, we have called on them six or seven times, he said. In 2016, because of the hail, in 2017, for a spring frost and a drought, in 2019, the heat wave melted the grapes. “ Not to mention a fatal blow from mildew in 2018.
To compensate their clients, insurers rely, by international convention, on the “Olympic average” of the last five years, removing the best and worst years, then calculating the average of the remaining three years. “For us, it is three very small harvests, and, on this average, it is still necessary to remove the franchise”, explains Sébastien. According to his initial calculations, the turnover of his farm will fall by 80,000 euros in 2021, compared to the average of his income over twenty years, to fall to 40,000 euros, and he is not waiting for more. from 5,000 to 7,000 euros in reimbursement from its insurer. “Crop insurance has become obsolete, he concludes. I ask myself the question of continuing to insure myself. “
It is in fact the whole of the territory which is caught up by this fall in agricultural yields, as the deputy (LRM) of Val-de-Marne Frédéric Descrozaille underlines in a report on the management of agricultural risks, submitted on the 21st April to the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie. Caused by global warming, “This downward trend in production potentials can be considered uninsurable, because it is structural, and resemble a calamity or even a natural disaster”, underlines the parliamentarian.
Two systems coexist
Traveling in a Hérault vineyard victim of frost, Jean Castex said on April 17 that it was necessary “Overhaul the crop insurance software”. “A reform will not be enough”, do we believe the Ministry of Agriculture, charged by the Prime Minister to “Proposals quickly”.
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