Severe flooding in parts of central Europe has left at least eleven people dead, displacing thousands more and reportedly causing extensive damage to fruit and vegetable production in affected areas.
The floods are thought to have been caused by heavy rains which caused water to surge north and east along rivers including the Elbe and Danube.
In parts of southern and eastern Germany, vegetable producers reported large areas under water and unable to drain properly, raising concerns for a number of key products like asparagus and potatoes grown in the area.
German agriculture minister Ilse Aigner told journalists that around 40,000ha of agricultural and forest land had been flooded, including 20,000ha of farmland, and promised to release an initial €100m in federal aid.
'We are in an ominous situation,' Walter Heidl, president of Bavarian farming association BBV told Fruchthandel. 'The harvest in many regions is under threat and many farmers are suffering from the extreme weather conditions.'
Agriculture hit
In the Czech Republic, thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes due to the rising water, while flooding has also hit parts of Austria and Switzerland.
Michala Kozuba of Home Credit told Czech news outlet Aktuálně: 'We must not forget the agriculture sector, for which this year will be a very difficult year.'
The worst-hit parts of the Czech Republic are understood to be in Mělnicka and Nymburský. Overall, as in Germany, hundreds of hectares of vegetable production are said to be underwater, but the impact on consumers is not expected to be severe.
Jaroslava Zemana, president of the Bohemia and Moravia Vegetable Growers Union, told the iDnes website that around 500ha of vegetable production, equal to about six per cent of the country's total growing area, had been damaged.
'Currently there are about 500ha of vegetable fields with flooding damage, mainly in Bohemia,' he explained. 'But the situation is also beginning to deteriorate in northern Bohemia.'
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