News Drought
It's raining compensation claims from French farmers
The French agricultural insurer Groupama has already received 20.000 compensation claims from farmers for this year. Most damage reports are caused by yield losses due to drought. As a result, 1 in 2 of the company's customers has filed a claim.
"Groupama has insured 42.000 farmers in total. 20.000 of these companies have filed a claim for loss of yield on their crops", says agricultural director Delphine Létendart against La France Agricole.
Not just drought
Of these damage claims, 14.000 are drought-related. The remaining 6.000 come from damage from severe weather. For example, hail damage. The Rhône-Alpes area has the most reports. Mainly thanks to storms in June, which completely destroyed crops by hail. In addition to arable crops, this mostly concerns fruit and vineyards.
In mid-August the damage counter at Groupama stood at €60 million in crop damage. Létendart thinks this number will increase further in the coming weeks. It will only become clear at the end of October, when all the maize has been harvested, how extensive the drought damage actually is. "The maize crops have fewer cobs, but thanks to the rain at the end of August, they are well filled. Hopefully the damage is not too bad," he thinks.
Total damage unknown
According to French government figures, 30% of the country's 448.500 farmers have crop insurance. This concerns 134.550 companies. Almost a third of these are insured with Groupama. Winegrowers and grain growers in particular have insured their crops. The French association of insurers could not say at the beginning of September how big the total damage is at other insurers.
Niels van der Boom
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