Thousands of farmers who suffered damage to their production in 2023 due to natural disasters – floods, frosts, droughts – received late letters rejecting (total or almost) their compensation requests from AgriCat Srl, the mutual fund set up for this purpose. #VanghePulite.
1) CAP, support for national strategic plans for risk management in agriculture
Regulation (EU) 2021 / 2115 introduced rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy, financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). (1)
Support from EAGF and EAFRD ‘It is intended to further improve the sustainable development of agriculture, food and rural areas’ and ‘Strengthen the socio-economic fabric of rural areas’, so as to ‘support a sufficient agricultural income and the resilience of the agricultural sector across the Union’. (2)
1.1) CAP, national risk management tools
Member States may decide to allocate up to 3% of the direct payments to be paid in a given year to all farmers’for the farmer’s contribution to a risk management tool’. (3) In practice, it is the farmers themselves who finance the mutual funds.
The instruments for risk management in agriculture are included among the interventions for rural development and can take the form of financial contributions both for the premiums of insurance schemes and for mutual funds. (4)
2) AgriCat, the mutual fund for compensation to farmers for damages caused by floods, frost or drought
AgriCat and the ‘National mutual fund for the coverage of catastrophic weather-related damage to agricultural production caused by floods, frost or frost and drought’. This fund, established by law 234/2021, is:
– a tool provided for by the National Strategic Plan of the CAP 2023-2027 (intervention SRF04)
– aimed at providing compensation to farmers who have suffered damage to their crops as a result of a catastrophic event such as flooding, frost or hoarfrost, drought
– managed by the company AGRI-CAT Srl and dedicated to all agricultural companies that receive direct payments under the CAP. (5)
2.1) AgriCat, financial endowment
AgriCat’s financial endowment, as reported on its website, amounts to approximately 350 million euros/year of which:
- €105 million approximately, 30% of the total, ‘value on EAGF, resulting from the 3% levy on the amount of direct payments (first pillar of the CAP)’
- €245 million approximately, 70% of the total, ‘in value on FEASR, covered by an integration contribution activated with resources from the rural development policy’. (6)
3) AgriCat, no protection against damages from catastrophic events
Confagricoltura and CIA are the first Italian agricultural confederations to have denounced the total or partial rejection, by AgriCat, of the approximately 12.000 requests for compensation sent by farmers whose agricultural production has suffered even catastrophic damage caused by calamitous events.
Approximately 80-90% of instances of compensation, according to provisional estimates, could have been rejected. The accepted applications would have instead led to disbursements of a few euros, compared to requests for compensation for tens of thousands of euros. With the greater shame of:
– inaccessible reasons’why the credentials provided to individuals to access the documentation on the portal do not work or the pages do not show uploaded files’
– very short deadline for submitting appeals, from 23 September to 2 October 2024.
3.1) A mockery of Emilia-Romagna farmers
Over 30.000 hectares of crops suffered very serious damage in Emilia-Romagna, in 2023:
– frosts in March-April destroyed up to 90% of fruit crops
– the flood in May overwhelmed 2.000 out of 6.000 farms in the province of Ravenna alone.
5.000 requests of compensation, explains the president of Confagricoltura Emilia-Romagna Marcello Bonvicini, have so far been rejected by AgriCat in 80% of cases. (7)
The provision of contributions, moreover, it should have taken place in the spring of the year following the calamitous events, that is between March and April 2024. But the joke continues, and the farmers pay.
3.2) Poor management and computer system down
‘AgriCat, paid for by farmers, was supposed to be an effective tool. A slow and poorly organized management bureaucracy risks blowing up the bank, with the only result of not passing on the resources to the affected agricultural companies.
The Fund was created with the aim of broadening the base of companies that use risk management tools and must therefore be integrated with insurance policies; to date AgriCat is completely disconnected from subsidized insurance.
It is also inconceivable that inadequate IT tools and procedures cause enormous damage to producers by instrumentally placing the blame on the many CAAs, Agricultural Assistance Centres.’ (CIA – Italian Farmers).
4) AgriCat, 2023 budget
2023 report of AGRI-CAT Srl offers some data worthy of attention:
- total assets € 13.316.176 (+9.139.662 compared to 2022)
- operating loss € 2.404.772 (+2.369.262 compared to 2022)
- total personnel costs €309.423 (+300.850 compared to 2022)
- costs for information services €1.490.602.
This last sum is equal to ‘cost of exclusive competence 2023 relating to the development and management services of the SIAN contemplated in the Framework Agreement Lot 3’.
5) IT system, the 1,5 million euro contract
Development and management of that part of the national agricultural information system (SIAN) under the exclusive jurisdiction of AgriCat – which CIA-Italian Farmers complains does not work (see supra, paragraph 3.2) – therefore cost just under 1,5 million euros, in 2023 alone.
The millionaire contract was entrusted in 2019 by Consip (the central purchasing body of the public administration) to the temporary grouping of companies composed of Leonardo SpA, HPE Services Italia Srl, GEOS SpA, Green Aus SpA and Abaco SpA. (8)
Abaco SpA was acquired in October 2023 by IBF Servizi, a company controlled by Nextalia SGR (established by Coldiretti) and participated by BF Agricola (9,10,11). This may help to understand why the clan of Vincenzo Gesmundo, who sits on the Board of Directors of Nextalia, has not yet thundered against the malfunctions of SIAN.
6) Agri-Cat Srl, in whose hands?
Another aspect that is intriguing, in the poor management of compensation practices for damages to farmers, is the signature at the bottom of the thousands of rejection letters.
The CEO of AGRI-CAT Srl to whom the management of the mutual fund is entrusted is Massimo Tabacchiera, of whom the following are noted:
– the simultaneous roles of chairman of the board of directors of three other joint-stock companies, as well as member of the management committee of an industrial consortium. (12) How can a manager with four other prestigious roles dedicate the necessary time to the mutual fund for the protection of farmers?
– the previous sentence by the Court of Auditors to compensate him for the damages to the treasury attributed to him, in relation to illegitimate contracts stipulated by him as president of another public company. (13)
7) Italian Agri-catastrophe
The farms in Italy are experiencing a state of deep crisis linked to calamitous meteorological events, including drought, as well as African swine fever which puts the entire national pig supply chain at risk. (14)
Farmers also continue to suffer from unfair commercial practices in the cooperative, PO and AOP sectors which are prohibited by EU Directive 2019/633 EU but permitted in Italy due to an amendment signed by Undersecretary Giacomo La Pietra. (15)
Minister Francesco Lollobrigida has not been able to face any of the problems mentioned above, also because of the bad advice of Coldiretti from which he should free himself once and for all.
#VanghePulite
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). Consolidated version as of 25.4.24 on Eur-Lex https://tinyurl.com/u6bpuz4w
(2) Reg. (EU) 2021/2115, articles 5 and 6
(3) Reg. (EU) 2021/2115, article 19
(4) Reg. (EU) 2021/2115, articles 69.1.f and 76
(5) Law 30 December 2021, n. 234. State budget forecast for the financial year 2022 and multi-year budget for the three-year period 2022-2024. Text updated to 9.9.24 on Normattiva https://tinyurl.com/ynutp8ap See Article 1, paragraph 515-517
(6) Agri-Cat Fund, financing and functioning of the new CAP instrument https://tinyurl.com/yj8njrhs
(7) Natascia Ronchetti. No explanation for the flood victims who were cheated. Il Fatto Quotidiano. 30.8.24
(8) Sian: lots 3 and 4 of the tender have been awarded. L’Informatore agrario. 4.4.19 https://tinyurl.com/bdfj99jx
(9) IBF Servizi announces the acquisition of ABACO from Idea Taste of Italy, strengthening its leadership in the agritech sector. Abaco. 19.10.23 https://tinyurl.com/mr2vzfyp
(10) See the paragraph ‘PNRR, Coldiretti with all hands down’ in the previous article by Dario Dongo. Public administration, loyalty to the state or to Coldiretti? #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(11) Dario Dongo. Nextalia sgr, Coldiretti’s new tentacle in high finance. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(12) Massimo Tabacchiera is the chairman of the board of directors of Siderlamina Srl and Asteco Industria SpA, both based in Pomezia, as well as of Elma Real Estate Srl in Rome. In addition to being a member of the board of directors of CIPO (Consorzio Industriale Pontino), and managing director of Agri-Cat Srl
(13) Michela Allegri. False consultancy, the former head of Rome mobility Massimo
Tabacchiera will have to pay 60 thousand euros. Il Messaggero. 14.2.22 https://tinyurl.com/mr3vkmfd
(14) Dario Dongo. African swine fever, the indispensable solution. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
(15) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. DL agriculture, yet another mockery of Lollobrigida. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
