2022 European drought

The 2022 European drought is the continent's benchmark agricultural event for the decade: a spring rainfall deficit extended by three summer heat waves. In August, the JRC called it the worst in at least 500 years, on a preliminary basis. The hardest-hit areas were Spain, France, northern and central Italy, central Germany, Hungary and Romania. Summer crops took the blow. Per Eurostat, grain corn output fell to 53.0 million tonnes, 27% less than in 2021, and the cereal harvest dropped 9%. Winter cereals, harvested early, fared better. For the market, 2022 mainly served as a test of national schemes. In France, the old agricultural calamities regime still paid on grassland: the CNGRA recognized forage zones through January 2023, with a 30% loss threshold and 11% of gross product. The reform voted on March 2, 2022 took effect only in 2023, too late for that summer. In Spain, Agroseguro absorbed already heavy claims, ahead of the 2023 record. For a reinsurer, the point that matters is extent. A drought of this size hits several countries in the same program in the same year, which country-by-country models miss. Not to be confused with geotechnical drought (clay shrink-swell), which hit buildings in France the same year and falls under the CatNat regime.