Construction - Ministry: Emergency aid for fruit growers this year
After significant yield losses in this year, Thuringian fruit farmers can apply for emergency aid from the end of August. The corresponding regulation will soon take effect, the Agriculture Ministry informed the German Press Agency. The land had promised emergency aid to fruit farmers for two million Euros due to savings.
The frost night on April 23rd after the fruit tree bloom caused massive harvest losses for cherries, apples, and plums. The damage is estimated to be around 7.5 million Euros for fruit farming, and around five million Euros for vineyards. For around 20 farms, according to the ministry, the revenue losses are existential.
Application period and possible EU aid
The affected farms can apply for state aid from August 26th to September 27th. The payment of the funds will take place by the end of this year, it was stated. The subsidy will be granted as compensation for a maximum of 50% of the total damage. In addition, the state government, according to the ministry, is lobbying with the Federal Government for crisis aid from the European Commission to also benefit German fruit farmers and not just those in Austria, Czech Republic, and Poland. A decision on whether additional EU funds can be made available to the affected fruit farms in Thuringia will be made soon, it was stated.
Political tensions over emergency aid
The CDU state chairman and leading candidate for the state election, Mario Voigt, urged Agriculture Minister Susanna Karawanskij (Left) in a letter for a quick payment of the aid. The Landtag had adopted a CDU emergency motion on this matter at the beginning of June. "We and above all the affected fruit farmers had imagined something other than waiting for weeks and months for support and aid," it was stated in the letter.
Minister Karwanskij rejected Voigt's criticism: "State emergency aid always requires a legal basis. We have worked on these in the past few weeks and thus created the conditions for the emergency aid to still be paid out this year."
- The EU is being lobbied by the Thuringian government for additional crisis aid to support orchard farming, following significant yield losses.
- The German Press Agency reported that the Agriculture Ministry in Erfurt is collaborating with the EU to provide quick help for fruit farms experiencing existential anxiety due to the yield losses.
- Despite the yield losses in Thuringia's agriculture sector, the EU regulation for providing emergency aid to orchard farmers will come into effect at the end of August.
- The construction of new infrastructure for agriculture in Thuringia could potentially receive EU funding as part of the emergency aid, benefiting both commercial and small-scale orchard farming.
- Voigt, the CDU state chairman, criticized the delay in providing emergency aid to affected fruit farms in his letter to Minister Karawanskij, emphasizing the need for swift action to support orchard farming in Thuringia.
