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Heavy frost causes over 50 mln euros of damage to agriculture in Austria

Xinhua, April 21, 2017 Adjust font size:

Frost in the early hours of Friday morning caused damage to the Austrian agricultural industry of over 50 million euros (53 million U.S. dollars), according to initial estimates from insurance authority Hagelversicherung.

In a press release, it said the states of Styria, Carinthia, and the south of Burgenland saw the worst of the damage. The states of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Tyrol, and Vorarlberg were also affected in some areas.

"Heavy frost damage occurred particularly with fruit and wine plantations, but also with special plantations such as tree nurseries and asparagus," head of the Hagelversicherung Kurt Weinberger stated.

He added that the total area affected was over 12,000 hectares.

Farmers had been aware of the coming temperature drop ahead of time, and had prepared measures such as the burning of straw and covering up the crops in a bid to fend off the cold.

Temperatures ended up dipping as low as minus six degrees Celsius. Many farmers now anxious as to the extent of the damage. Enditem