Around 400 hectares of vineyard were affected by the bad weather in the last few weeks in the municipality of Alenquer, which compromises this year’s harvest, warned today the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Viticultural Commission (CVRLVT).
The 400 hectares of affected vineyards total a loss of 1.7 million euros, according to the losses declared to the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDRLVT) and cited in CVRLVT’s press release.
According to this Vitivinicultural Commission, “these numbers already compromise this year’s harvest in Alenquer, and place several operations in a situation of high financial vulnerability.”
In the 400 hectares affected, there are cultivation areas where landslides occurred, subsidence and soil deformations, destruction of trellises (posts and wires), damage to drainage systems and internal access roads, hindering the circulation of machinery and compromising essential operations at the start of the vegetative cycle.
Beyond restoring productive potential, CVRLVT warned that “the economic survival of a significant part of the 2,000 family farms, cooperatives and companies that sustain employment, population retention and economic activity in strategic rural areas is at stake.”
For CVRLVT, “these impacts arise at a particularly critical moment for the national and regional wine sector,” when it faces an international scenario marked by a structural downturn in consumption in the main markets, downward pressure on prices paid to producers, a significant rise in energy costs, labour and production inputs, the growing need for investment in climate change adaptation and strong pressure on the farms’ treasury due to stock accumulation.
“The occurrence of these extreme phenomena aggravates an economic situation that is already complex and fragile,” concluded the authority, thus calling for support.
Meanwhile, 22 more municipalities joined the 68 municipalities covered by the state of calamity decreed by the Government in January in the areas affected by the bad weather, according to a decree published on Tuesday in the Diário da República.
The 22 municipalities are Alcoutim, Alenquer, Almeirim, Alpiarça, Anadia, Arganil, Arruda dos Vinhos, Azambuja, Baião, Benavente, Cartaxo, Castelo de Paiva, Chamusca, Coruche, Faro, Mafra, Monchique, Mortágua, Oliveira do Hospital, Salvaterra de Magos, Sobral de Monte Agraço and Tábua.
In the decree, the Government recalls that during January and February, the continental territory was “successively affected by several intense and anomalous meteorological phenomena, which resulted in a scenario of persistent rainfall with profound implications for the stability of the affected regions.”
The calamity situation is the most severe of three states and, according to the legislation “can be declared when, in light of the occurrence or danger of occurrence of a serious accident and/or catastrophe, and its foreseeable intensity, there is a recognition of the need to adopt exceptional measures aimed at preventing, reacting to or restoring the normal conditions of life in the areas affected by its effects.”
Eighteen people died in Portugal following the passage of depressions Kristin, Leonardo and Marta, which also caused hundreds of injuries and displacements.
The total or partial destruction of homes, businesses and equipment, the falling of trees and structures, the closure of roads, schools and transport services, and the cutting of power, water and communications, floods and inundations are the main material consequences of the storm.
The Centro, Lisbon and Tagus Valley and Alentejo regions were the most affected.
