Flood, extensive damage to crops and 50,000 jobs at risk
(Teleborsa) – On her return from the G7 in Hiroshima, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the places plagued by bad weather in Emilia-Romagnataking to the streets among the people and ensuring that “the government is there”. Not a “catwalk”, assured the Premier, who did not communicate his movements, landing at Rimini airport on his return from Japan and going incognito to the flooded countries, on the street among the people.
“It was a tragedy but it can be an opportunity to be reborn stronger”Meloni said while visiting the cities of Forlì, Ravenna and Faenza, admitting that it will take “many resources” to repay the huge damage caused by the flood and excludes the possibility of using the resources of the Pnrr.
Il CDM on the bad weather emergency is called for tomorrow, Tuesday 23 May, to make a rough estimate of the damage and to distribute the aid. The president of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini has already clarified that the maximum is expected, 100% refunds as was the case for the earthquakeand the total restoration of roads, woods, orchards.
The disastrous estimates of Coldiretti
According to an estimate by Coldiretti “it has been lost this year the production of at least 400 million kilos of grain in the flooded lands of Emilia Romagna, where approx 1/3 of the national soft wheatwhile the fruit harvest it will be compromised for the next four or five years because the water left in the orchards has suffocated the roots of the trees until they rot with the need to uproot and then replant entire plantations”.
According to Coldiretti Emilia Romagna would reach 15 million plants to eradicate the tragic balance of the floods of orchards, starting with peaches, then nectarines, kiwis, apricots, pears, plums, apples, persimmons and cherries.
They value each other damages of up to 6,000 euros per hectare for arable land (wheat, barley, corn, soybeans, sunflower, alfalfa, horticultural and seed crops) e 32,000 euros per hectare for orchards, vineyards and olive groves, including lost crops and the cost of replanting. But the calculation does not include repercussions on inventories, structures, machinery or even liquidity advances aimed at restarting the business.
5,000 farms and ranches devastated
Furthermore, the flood “has devastated over 5,000 farms and ranches with drowned animals in Romagna, one of the most agricultural areas of the country with a gross salable production of around 1.5 billion euros per year which multiplies along the supply chain thanks to avant-garde private and cooperative induced activities in food processing and distribution which has been severely compromised.
The “fruit valley” of Romagna has been hitwhere there are plantations of apricots, nectarines, plums, apples, pears, kiwis, strawberries, which will have heavy repercussions on prices also in the “after the flood”: 20% of the apricots traded in Italy and 10% of the peaches and nectarines are produced in the area and, more generally, a drop of 10-20% in the availability of fruit at a national level is estimated.
In the affected areas, according to Coldiretti, they are 50,000 jobs at risk between farmers and employees in the countryside, in industries and in processing and processing cooperatives