Damage after the frost is 2.1 billion, the winegrowers calculated

According to Chlad, the winemakers do not remember such a situation, when the heat came first and the winters followed.

“The current amount that we have calculated is 2.1 billion in damages, both on the marketable raw material lost on the basis of damaged vines and on the basis of lost profits connected with the sale of products, primarily wine as such,” Chlad declared.

In the Czech Republic, winegrowers are recording “absolute damage”, because the frost there decimated more than 95 percent of the harvest.

“In Moravia, some numbers will be pushed up, so we are talking about damages at the level of 25 to 27 percent. If we average it over the entire republic, we are at the level of 35 percent, maybe a little higher,” added Chlad. In Bohemia, where the vineyards are significantly more damaged, there are not as many vineyards as in Moravia, where the damage is not so severe.

According to him, additional costs for winegrowers will arise in connection with the fact that there will be no employment for the people they have already hired to work in the vineyards.

They don’t want to discuss the tax anymore

Winegrowers are asking for a more active approach from the Ministry of Agriculture to solve their problems and also to stop the discussion about the introduction of excise tax on still wine. Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborny (KDU-ČSL) was invited by winemakers to a public discussion, which will take place at the beginning of May in Velké Bílovice with the participation of a hundred winemakers. They want to familiarize him with their expectations.

Already on Thursday, the damage caused by the frost was also calculated by the fruit growers, who announced a loss of more than one billion crowns.