Portugal: Tomato producers ask for Government's intervention against insurance companies
In a note sent to the news agency "Lusa", the National Federation of Fruits and Vegetables Producers Organizers - FNOP - regrets the difficulties found by producers when getting harvest insurance policies for the 2012 campaign.
"Around 50% of the tomato for industry was already harvested, but many producers are completely unprotected, so, until now, there's no ability to create the proper conditions for the harvest insurance policies", says the note.
For FNOP, this difficulty endangers an activity "that is so important for the Ribatejo and Alentejo regions, that export more than 250 million Euro, involves more than 4,000 working jobs and takes 14,000 hectares".
Producers regret "the lack of understanding between the Portuguese Government, insurance companies and the national production" that brings "serious problems, not only for farmers, but for the whole country".