Hailstorm in PSElpidio, blow to agriculture: «90% of crops lost. Massive damage to production and plants”

PORTO SANT’ELPIDIO – This is Roberto Cerquozzi, an agricultural entrepreneur from Elpidio with his p’Orto Franco, victim of Thursday’s hailstorm, speaking: «We met Coldiretti and with them we discussed the possible opening of a dialogue with the insurance companies so that our situation can also be included in the case study. We are faced with a sudden event that we have never before found ourselves facing with this vehemence. We are immediately carrying out assessments, because almost 90% of the existing crops have been destroyed. We lost plants, therefore investments of 6,000 euros, lost income and turnover of 25,000 euros. We are trying to understand how to deal with this situation, but as good entrepreneurs we certainly don’t hold back

June 16, 2024 – 10:56 am

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“The works involving our Civil Protection volunteers and those of other municipal groups continue today in the streets of the city most affected by Thursday’s exceptional rainfall.” Speaking is the mayor of Porto Sant’Elpidio, Massimiliano Ciarpella. The emergency in the city is now over, the damage assessment is now underway, which however will take a few more days. In fact, it is not easy to immediately make a real and detailed estimate. «The removal of the ice that had accumulated in the basements, garages and rooms has now been completed, the cleaning work continues and some more time will be needed to complete the disposal of waste and materials damaged by the weather. – continues the mayor – Tomorrow at the Peter Pan nursery school a company will carry out a restoration operation and an inspection will be carried out, we hope to be able to proceed with the reopening as soon as possible. I thank once again all the forces and volunteers who have carried out incessant work over these two days, providing invaluable support to citizens.”

In the meantime, as announced by Ciarpella himself, a request has been made for recognition of the state of emergency in the Marche Region. Furthermore, the many agricultural companies present in the area were concretely affected. For them the esteem is almost immediate and for some the ideas on what to ask the public are also clear, as I maintain. «We are used to getting through difficulties with our own strength, speaking of my company, furthermore I am a little out of love with politics. Today many people tell us “now if a state of disaster emergency is declared, you will be able to submit your requests for compensation”, but no, this is no longer the case. We are in a sector, that of Fermano, where many companies are cereal producers or dedicated to the production of grapes. There are few companies that produce vegetables in a diversified way and adopt a direct sales policy and it is complicated to use an insurance protection system.” The speaker is Roberto Cerquozzi, an agricultural entrepreneur from Elpidio with his p’Orto Franco, victim of Thursday’s hailstorm, but who fluctuated in the world of politics in 2013 when he ran for mayor with the M5S. He focuses on the insurance world; in fact, today 90% of the market that protects agriculture works with tables and cases that allocate a premium to be paid and a possible percentage to be collected in the event of an event. However, these numbers often clash with the real needs of companies or, as in this case, create standards in which the company, having a different cyclical nature than usual, remains left out. «We met Coldiretti and with them we discussed the possible opening of a dialogue with the insurance companies so that our situation can also be included in the case study. We are faced with a sudden event that we have never before found ourselves facing with this vehemence. We are immediately carrying out assessments, because almost 90% of the existing crops have been destroyed. We lost plants, therefore investments of 6,000 euros, lost income and turnover of 25,000 euros. We are trying to understand how to deal with this situation, but as good entrepreneurs we certainly won’t hold back.”

Maikol Di Stefano