Heavy rainstorms have flooded the Italian countryside, leaving farmers uncertain of the Italian grape harvest and farmers facing a €1bn loss.
Bad weather, with copious amounts of water and violent storms, has caused extensive damage to plants, greenhouses and farms.
Italian agricultural organisation Coldiretti has announced that the rain has hit hardest in central and southern Italy, where all agricultural operations have been affected, but particularly the grape harvest, which is delayed across the production regions.
"The bad weather,” said Coldiretti, "has not spared any region - everywhere has been affected. The losses are impossible to estimate accurately at the moment, and are continually rising, partly as a result of rivers flooding and torrents of water.
“The alarm raised by the civil protection services spread quickly throughout the countryside, where the water was not absorbed by the parched land because it fell so heavily. Thus it tended to flow away immediately, taking the top layer of soil with it and creating the conditions for landslides and avalanches.”
As much as 7.1 per cent of Italy - a total of over 21,000 square kilometers - is considered to be at risk of landslides and flooding.
In addition, the farming industry is extremely worried about hail and the irreversible damage it could do to fruit and vegetables still in the fields and orchards, such as apples and pears. Greenhouse structures are also at risk.
Many growers in the main fruit-producing regions have spread out their anti-hail nets to protect their fruit crops and are ready to fire their pressure canons, an important defence system to try and limit the damage to the agricultural industry.
“Between drought and bad weather, this summer the industry has had losses and damage worth over a billion euro,” said Coldiretti.
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