Severe frosts across France this week have badly damaged buds and flowers in vineyards and fruit orchards and will cut grape harvests in some areas by as much as 90 per cent, according to growers and farmers’ organisations.
“It was like winter coming in spring,” said Didier Delagrange, whose family has made wine from grapes grown on the slopes of Volnay in Burgundy for seven generations.
“There was considerable damage, but we haven’t fully evaluated it yet,” he said. “The Chardonnay was more affected because the [shoots] were more advanced.” Around half of the vines in Burgundy have been damaged, according to local producers.
In Chablis to the north, winegrower Thierry Mothe said the temperature had fallen as low as -7C, and 90-95 per cent of the potential crop would be lost. “There will be very little harvest in 2021,” he said. “It was like a winter frost, not a spring frost.”
After a series of other problems, including US wine import tariffs linked to a trade war with the EU and the closure of many restaurants and bars around the world as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic — “there are some domains today that will be in very severe difficulties,” Mothe said.
Even Bordeaux in south-western France was hit by the frosts, which also damaged the growth on fruit trees such as apricots, peaches and nectarines, and field-crops such as rapeseed and sugar beet. The impact was particularly severe because the freeze followed several days of warm weather that accelerated plant growth.
Julien Denormandie, agriculture minister, said a state of agricultural calamity would be declared to mobilise financial support for farmers. “This is a completely exceptional situation,” he said on Franceinfo radio. “The losses are substantial.” The CNIV, which represents wine producers, called the disaster “one of the worst of recent decades”.
Social media in France have been marked this week by eerie night-time pictures of smoky braziers illuminating vineyards across the country as growers sought to heat the air and limit the damage to their crops, but the method is expensive as well as being inadequate to counter a very severe frost.
Delagrange said he would have needed 4,500 paraffin-fuelled heaters to cover all his 15 hectares at a cost of nearly €50,000 for the two worst nights, and growers could afford to protect only the vines for their finest wines.
“In numerous regions, from north to south and east to west, the damage is severe for winegrowers and fruit farmers,” the National Federation of Farmers’ Unions said in a statement. “There is also great distress for arable farms. The impact on rape, just as it is flowering, is dramatic, as it is for sugar beet seedlings: many growers will have to replant more than half their crops.”
Late frosts are not unprecedented, but many French farmers blame global warming for some of the erratic weather they have endured in recent years, including droughts and floods.
Shorter winters, higher summer temperatures and faster ripening is changing the character of French wine vintages, and grapes are now harvested up to three weeks earlier than they were only a few decades ago.
Temperatures also dropped to below zero across the north of Italy, after weeks of sunshine and warm weather. Nebbiolo, Moscato and Barbera winemakers in Piedmont said that between 50-80 per cent of their annual production had been destroyed by the frost.
In Piedmont and farther south, in Tuscany and Lazio (the region that contains Rome), apricot, peach and kiwi harvests have also been lost, according to local media reports.
Additional reporting from SilviaSciorilli Borrelli in Milan
This article was amended after publication to include Barbera winemakers in Piedmont
An explosive eruption from La Soufriere volcano has rocked the eastern Caribbean island of St Vincent, sending ash six miles into the air.
Erouscilla Joseph, director of the University of the West Indies Seismic Centre, said "heavy ashfall" had covered surrounding villages - and she warned "more explosions could occur".
An estimated 16,000 people had been taken off St Vincent due to mandatory evacuation orders from the local government after it declared there was a "substantial prospect of disaster", following days of seismic activity.
Image:A huge ash cloud climbed into the sky above St Vincent after La Soufriere erupted. Pic: UWI Seismic Research
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said two Royal Caribbean cruise ships had been due to arrive on Friday and a third in the coming days, as well as two Carnival cruise ships.
Islands that have said they would accept evacuees include St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and Antigua.
Mr Gonsalves said: "Not everything is going to go perfect, but if we all co-operate, we will come through this stronger than ever."
The prime minister said he was negotiating with other Caribbean governments to accept ID cards from those people who don't have a passport.
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"This is an emergency situation, and everybody understands that," he added.
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Volcanic eruption evacuations ordered
However, Mr Gonsalves warned evacuation efforts could be hampered by the pandemic as people would have to be vaccinated in order to go aboard a cruise ship, or when granted temporary refuge in other nearby islands.
He urged anyone going to a shelter in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which combined are home to more than 100,000 people, to get vaccinated.
Image:Smoke rises from the La Soufriere volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Pic: UWI Seismic Research Centre
Image:The volcano had been simmering for days. Thousands fled their nearby homes. Pic: The UWI Seismic Research Centre
The volcano last erupted in 1979, and a previous one in 1902 killed 1,600 people.
There are no immediate reports of casualties this time.
An "explosive" volcano eruption has blanketed the Caribbean island of St Vincent in ash and smoke.
La Soufrière, which has been dormant for decades, first started showing volcanic activity in December which picked up this week.
Late on Thursday Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves urged more than 16,000 residents in so-called red zones to urgently evacuate.
The volcano has since spewed dark ash plumes 6 km (3.7 miles) into the air.
Ash fall has been recorded as far from the volcano as Argyle International Airport, St Vincent's National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said.
The first sign that an eruption was imminent came on Thursday evening, when a lava dome was suddenly visible on La Soufrière.
Then, just before 09:00 on Friday (13:00 GMT), seismologists from the University of the West Indies confirmed that an "explosive eruption" was under way.
Evacuees were taken to cruise ships and safer parts of the island.
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Lavern King, a volunteer at shelters on the island, told Reuters news agency: "People are still being evacuated from the red zone, it started yesterday evening and into last night. The place in general is in a frenzy."
Most of the Lesser Antilles islands are part of a long volcanic arc in the Eastern Caribbean.
This is the first eruption on St Vincent since 1979. The worst eruption on record, in 1902, killed more than 1,000 people.
Local media have also reported increased activity from Mount Pelee on the island of Martinique, north of St Vincent.
An "explosive" volcano eruption has blanketed the Caribbean island of St Vincent in ash and smoke.
Volcanic activity on La Soufrière was first detected on Thursday, at which point Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves urged more than 16,000 residents in so-called red zones to urgently evacuate.
The volcano has since spewed ash 6,000m (20,000 ft) into the air.
It is the first eruption on St Vincent since 1979. The worst on record killed more than 1,000 people in 1902.
