French wine makers have seen extensive damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country.
“The situation is catastrophic”, Franck Saillan, general secretary of the Aude winegrowers syndicate, said in an interview on Thursday.
There hasn’t been a preliminary assessment of losses yet but a large number of vineyards were destroyed, along with equipment and buildings, according to Saillan. Just 10 days before the harvest was set to begin in the region, the grapes can no longer be used due to smoke damage and traces of chemical fire retardants sprayed by firefighters, he said.
The Aude region makes about three million hectoliters out of 36.16 million hectoliters of wine produced in France annually. It’s home to well-known wines like Minervois, Corbieres and Fitou and it’s part of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, that produces about a third of the country’s wine.
“We’re going to carry out a survey of the hectares of vineyards affected, but it’s going to be enormous,” he said. Winegrowers are due to meet with the minister of agriculture next week to assess the damage and discuss help from the government, he said.
French firefighters are spending a third day trying to get the fires under control. More than 160 square kilometers (62 square miles), an area bigger than Paris, have been burned, French authorities said. One person has died and at least 13 people, including 11 firefighters, have been injured.
Read more: French Firefighters Battle to Control Worst Blaze Since 1949
Saillan called for the government to provide aid to the winegrowers, especially in cases where insurance don’t normally cover losses of harvest due to fires.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou told reporters on Thursday that the government was checking with insurance companies as part of efforts to support those affected by the wildfires this week.
“Aid must be provided to those affected, support to the victims, checks must be made with the insurance companies to understand the situation,” he said.
A spokesperson for French insurance lobby group France Assureurs said it was too early to give an estimate of the damage given the fire has not yet been completely brought under control.
Despite the scale of the fire, the cost to insurers is likely to be manageable given privately-owned forest is often uninsured. So far insurers have seen only a handful of claims, a person in the industry said, asking not to be named discussion commercially sensitive information.
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