Downy mildew damage, decree in Official Gazette to apply for aid

“Green light for compensatory interventions to help wineries in areas affected by blight during the 2023 campaign. The Meloni government is at the forefront in supporting the wine sector. With the publication of the decree in the Gazette, as I had anticipated in January to the agricultural and viticulture organizations of Abruzzo, in the meeting sponsored at the Ministry of Agriculture by the President of the Abruzzo Region, Marco Marsilio, through the declarations being published, the affected companies will now be able to access contributions for economic and productive recovery, including the reduction of Inps contributions and the extension of mortgage repayments”, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said. The resources, as explained, to WineNews, by Lollobrigida himself in September 2023, should amount, initially, to 7 million euros.

“Let’s give concrete answers and strengthen the Italian supply chains damaged by this disease in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Lazio, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Tuscany, Sicily, Umbria and Marche. In the coming weeks, Agea will begin collecting applications from affected farms. We will also work on the fund for emergencies in agriculture to supplement these resources and support the wine supply chain, which is fundamental to our economy and culture”, Minister Lollobrigida concluded.

“For damage to grapevine production caused by plasmopara viticola infection during the 2023 wine year, subsidies aimed at economic and productive recovery, as referred to in Article 5, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree No. 102 of March 29, 2004, shall be granted to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in grape production that have suffered damage exceeding 30% of gross saleable production due to the aforementioned infections”, states paragraph 1 of the article. Excluding large enterprises, and (paragraph 8 of Article 1) “individual aid shall not be granted where it is established that the failure to contain the infection of plasmopara viticola was deliberately caused by the beneficiary or was the consequence of his negligence”.