First estimates of storm damage in Estonia made

Thunderstorms at the beginning of the week have severely disrupted economic activity in Zemgale and Kurzeme, causing particularly severe damage in the Dobele region. According to the LPKS "LATRAPS" and the insurance cooperative VEREINIGTE HAGEL (VH Latvija), in the first three days applications for crop insurance have been received from more than 100 farms for 19,000 thousand hectares of damaged crops.

Maira Dzelzkalēja-Burmistre, Deputy Chairwoman of the Board of the Association “Farmers' Council”: "Since there are 4 crop insurers operating in Latvia, we predict that up to 25 thousand ha will be reported to insurers. The number of affected farms continues to grow, as reports of damage are still being received. It should be noted that not all farmers have insured their fields, therefore we predict that almost the same area has been destroyed and will not receive compensation. For these farms, which did not insure their crops, the future survival is very problematic. Residents of the regions affected by the storm will most likely not be able to buy local vegetables and fruits in their nearest markets this fall.

In such natural disaster risk situations, an alert or warning system is essential so that residents in potentially threatened areas can prepare in time. This storm showed that such a warning system in Latvia does not work the way it does in Western Europe, where every resident receives a message about approaching danger on their phone. On the day of the storm, there was no information about the specific direction of the storm, but there was only information about a possible thunderstorm on the Latvian side of the territory. It is still not clear why alarm sirens were not activated at the moment when the storm was raging on the Latvian border, because rural people do not sit in front of televisions or radios during work hours. The end result was destroyed buildings, damaged machinery and vehicles, and injured people and pets.

Crisis management in this situation is also unforgivably slow – several days have already passed and there is still no proper coordination and understanding of what the victims should do on their own and what the state or local government will help with. 

We must move away from the practice of paying compensation, and farmers must be encouraged to take responsibility themselves by providing support for crop insurance. Crop insurance should be supplemented with fruit, vegetable and corn insurance options. Both in Latvia and in most European countries, crop insurance is subsidized, but this year the support will cover less than 50% of the insurance policy costs, instead of 70 % as before. Since this is an expensive type of insurance, only about 20% of all crops are insured in Latvia. We believe that reducing support would be permissible only when the number of insured crops reaches at least 60 % of the crop areas. 

In order for farmers in storm-affected regions to survive, the government should come to the rescue with a working capital program with low/no interest for 2-3 years.

Currently, the association "Farmers' Council" is mobilizing its members and calling for donations to help the hardest hit farms."