`Greece to Compensate Olive Growers Impacted by Summer Fires - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Greece to Compensate Olive Growers Impacted by Summer Fires

By Costas Vasilopoulos
Jan. 21, 2022 11:47 UTC

Full-time olive grow­ers and other farm­ers in Greece who were impacted by last summer’s fires are enti­tled to finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion for dam­aged olive trees and other crops, the country’s min­istries of Finance and Rural Development announced.

In August, dozens of wild­fires broke out in the coun­try, with blazes engulf­ing 120,000 hectares of forests and agri­cul­tural land.

See Also:Extreme Weather Cost Billions in Damage in 2021, Study Finds

The areas most heav­ily affected were the west­ern Peloponnese, the north of Evia island in the Aegean and the north­ern out­skirts of Athens. Approximately 375,000 olive trees were burned down in the Ilia region alone, with the flames also threat­en­ing the arche­o­log­i­cal site of Ancient Olympia.

The size of the com­pen­sa­tion pay­ments to eli­gi­ble olive grow­ers will be cal­cu­lated accord­ing to the ini­tial dam­age esti­mates and the ​‘ini­tial appraisal price,’ which has been set at €144 per olive tree by the state.

According to stan­dard prac­tice in sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tions, the grow­ers will receive 70 per­cent of the total pay­out; half of the amount (€50.40 per olive tree) will be paid upfront, with the other half to be reim­bursed after the final dam­age esti­mates are com­pleted.

“The new [com­pen­sa­tion] pro­ce­dure is adapted to the specifics of these dam­ages,” the two min­istries said in a joint press release.

“In this con­text, and tak­ing into account the extent and inten­sity of the sum­mer fires and the dam­age caused to crop pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties, and espe­cially the agri­cul­tural hold­ings, the min­is­ters have accepted the rec­om­men­da­tion of the gov­ern­men­tal com­mit­tee of state aid and will pro­vide pay­ments in advance with a joint min­is­te­r­ial decree issued promptly,” the press release added.

Part-time olive grow­ers will be com­pen­sated for dam­aged olive trees at a later stage, the min­istries con­cluded.

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