Will this early spring have been fatal for the harvests?
Many crops - vines, fruit trees, cereals - were devastated after an episode of "dramatic" frost which crossed the north of France to the Rhone valley, via Bordeaux.
If the exact cost of the damage remains difficult to assess, the losses are already proving considerable for the operators.
Professional associations, like the FNSEA, are calling for rapid action measures while the government has announced the deployment of an agricultural calamity scheme to help farmers in difficulty.
At the head of a wine estate in the Hérault, Émilie estimates that she has lost 90% of her harvests.
A "sad first", underlines this owner of 60 hectares in the small village of Montady.
“I had already experienced episodes of cold like in 2017, but never like that.
At the time, only five hectares had been affected.
There, it froze in places that had never been threatened by the cold, it is a hard blow that must be taken ”, laments the winegrower.
"I was on the verge of selling everything and saying
it's over"
The previous nights, temperatures had fallen to -6 ° C in the department.
“I first thought that the thermometer was wrong,” notes Émilie, who is not used to such weather in the region.
But in the early hours of the morning, the thirty-something noticed the extent of the damage in astonishment: her many grape varieties (Grenache, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet, etc.) have all or almost been "toasted" by the frost.
“It's simple: we lost an entire year of work.
Seeing the condition of my vines, I was on the verge of selling everything and saying
it's over,
”she says.
Very active on social networks, the young woman shared her concerns, through a video in which she shows in particular the state of her vines devastated by frost.
A testimony that has found a particular echo with many arborists and winegrowers equally affected by the devastating cold snap.
“I received a lot of messages of support in different regions of France.
This prompts us not to give up, ”notes the farmer, who is increasing the number of crisis meetings with her wine-growing neighbors.
Like Émilie, Michelle tried to save her vines by lighting straw fires “to limit damage”.
But after one night with her eyes riveted on the thermometer, this Vaucluse winegrower could only observe the damage: of her 22 hectares, 16 were destroyed by frost.
Impossible for the young woman to feel sorry for too long, however.
“We cannot say to ourselves we are
stopping everything, we are waiting for next year
, we will have to work the vines, even the one that has frozen.
Because we will continue to have the same charges, while we will only have 10% of the harvest for a year, ”she is alarmed.
READ ALSO>
Fruits, beets, flax, rapeseed, barley .. the frost is wreaking havoc around Paris
A hard blow, even dramatic, after a year of health crisis.
“Being a cooperator, last year I was paid normally.
But there, I start to be paid from my 2020 harvest and I already have a 20% drop in turnover.
If we lose another 80%, it will be very complicated ... ”, confides the winemaker.
"Frozen strawberry flowers", "shriveled apricots"
In the Rhone valley, the first upswings also give rise to fears of the worst.
Even more for arborists, whose productions were more advanced than for winegrowers.
Established in Isère, in the small town of Saint-Prim, Jérôme Pury struggles to hide his concerns.
Because if it had already lost 80% of its production of apricots last year because of another episode of frost, the losses are today even "more catastrophic".
Newsletter It pays me
The newsletter that improves your purchasing power
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
“The flowers of my strawberries are all frozen.
The cells of the apricots have burst, the fruits are shriveled, necrotic.
All my apricots look like candied olives, there is nothing more to do, ”sighs the arborist who owns more than 40 hectares of fruit trees.
Jérôme Jury, arborist in Saint-Prim (Isère), lost his entire harvest of apricots due to frost.
Jerome Jury
Over the years, the farmer has seen his crops suffer from “increasingly extreme” climatic hazards.
This year is already likely to be historic: “temperatures have dropped from 25 ° C to -8 ° C in not even ten days!
“, He panics.
"So we can install wood stoves and antifreeze candles to raise the temperature from 3 to 4 degrees in orchards, but beyond that we can not do much," he says.
Angry, he still deplores a "cruel lack of anticipation" on the part of meteorological organizations.
“Météo France is supposed to give us forecasts so that we can arm ourselves to face this kind of hazard.
However, we were told temperatures close to 0 ° C when we had -8 ° C.
Now I only look at the German or Swiss weather institutes, which predict this kind of episodes in time, ”emphasizes the operator.
In Isère, Jérôme Jury was forced to light hundreds of candles to protect his orchards.
Jerome Jury
If the vagaries of the weather are increasingly worrying, the aid put on the table by the government to deal with these episodes is struggling to satisfy the profession.
“In the Drôme, it is estimated that 600 million fruits have gone up in smoke.
How are the operations going to keep their staff?
Today we are in the same situation as ski resorts which no longer have any revenue.
The only difference is that in their cases, the state finances the wages.
We are entitled to the usual scoops, ”regrets the arborist.
The agricultural calamity regime, "a bandage on a wooden leg"
An observation shared by Pierre-Marie Fahy, fruit producer in Seine-et-Marne, who saw his plum and cherry harvests entirely destroyed by the cold snap.
"When it happens to you this kind of tiles, you have to know how to fend for yourself", assures the one who had already set up a file of agricultural calamity regime in the spring of 2019. A device defended by the government but which is more of "dressing on a wooden leg, ”he sums up today.
At the time, the farmer faced a similar frost episode destroying most of his crops.
“I was only able to harvest 800 kilos of fruit instead of 45 tons,” he recalls.
“I had to put together a file, check my eligibility, wait for a return from the authorities, etc.
In the end, I was only compensated after a year.
This gives you time to worry ... and to find (in a hurry) another solution not to close the shop, ”he remarks.