Heavy snowfall in the Alpine foothills has led, as was reported earlier, to snow damage at several greenhouses in early January. The horticultural insurance sector has reported a good deal of damages from insured businesses. Due to further snowfall and rain, the situation was even more acute for the weekend of 12 to 13 January and week after that.
Due to the weight of the snow, all greenhouses caved in. In this greenhouse (right), all produce has to be disposed of / Image: Horticulture Insurance
The increasing snow has once again increased the extent of glass damage. Most of the affected farms are in southern Upper Bavaria, Greater Bad Tölz. Here, there were cases of 'total loss', whereas in another operations only parts of greenhouses were affected. In both cases, the extent of the damage is in the range of several hundred thousand euros. Sometimes the snow and ice are causing damage to the glass that impairs the heating of the greenhouses in question. 
In addition to this, there are problems with greenhouse installations, where pipes sometimes freeze up. Damage to the crops then becomes inevitable.
The horticultural insurance has already initiated the first advance payments. Due to the immense amounts of snow, assessing the damages can only be done to a limited extent at the moment, depending on the type of operation. How large the damage will be in the end, can only be assessed when the snow masses have been removed.
For more information: www.gevau.de