Nearly €13 million will be paid to farmers for frost-damaged crops

This year, the mutual insurance fund „Vereinigte Hagel“ will pay out €12.8 million to the country's farmers for frost-damaged crops. Some of the payments have already reached farmers, while the rest are still being paid, according to the fund's affiliate, „VH Lietuva“.

According to Martynas Rusteika, head of the mutual fund branch, more than 700 farms have reported losses this year as a result of prolonged frosts with extremely low temperatures.

„Damage experts had to inspect more than 6,000 fields. The total damaged area exceeds 56 thousand hectares (ha). The most affected fields were winter oilseed rape fields – more than 45 thousand hectares and winter cereal crops – 10 thousand hectares. Potato, sugar beet and maize fields were affected in individual regions," Rusteika said in a statement.

Foundation data show that the southern region of Lithuania was the most affected by frost: the districts of Šalčininkai, Alytus, Vilkaviškis, Šakiai and Jurbarkas. Smaller losses were recorded in Northern Lithuania. In different districts, losses range from 4 to 90 per cent.

„Untimely freezing temperatures damaged plant cells and tissues and freeze prevented plants from absorbing water. In some places, low temperatures slowed or stopped plant growth, which is particularly dangerous at the beginning of the growing season or during flowering – blossom death, fruit failure “, explains Toma Rickevičienė, Damage Assessment Manager at the Crop Mutual Insurance Fund.

According to the expert, the assessment of frost-damaged crops is a complex and responsible process that takes quite a long time – in several stages: damage assessment experts go to the fields and observe how and to what extent the plant recovers from the frost “bite“, and how much of the harvest will be lost due to the frost.

„Farmers' reports of crop fields damaged by meteorological events continue into the summer. Localised heavy rains have already caused damage to farmers, with the Mutual Fund receiving more than 300 reports of damaged crops. Experts are now on the road assessing the damage to more than 30,000 hectares," says Rusteika.

Crop Mutual Fund „Vereinigte Hagel“, which covers 96% of the Lithuanian market, is a non-commercial organisation of farmers whose aim is to protect the interests of its members (the insured farmers) and help them to manage their business risks. It operates as an association of policyholders and an insurer, with contributions made by the members themselves.

The VH Mutual Fund operates in 10 European countries, spreading the risk of crop insurance across the 110,000 current members of the Mutual Fund.

ELTA recalls that the Government declared a national emergency at the end of May due to the spring frosts, which severely affected berry and early vegetable crops.

Agriculture Minister Ignas Hofmanas says affected farmers will be compensated for their losses and is seeking European Union (EU) support to make this happen. He said farmers could receive at least part of the compensation, which will partly come from the state budget, by early next year.