The Minister of Agriculture is expected in Aude this Thursday after the fire that ravaged the Corbières region.

She doesn't come empty-handed. This Thursday, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard is traveling to Aude to announce aid for winegrowers, after the department was hit by the largest fire in the French Mediterranean region in at least 50 years.

She will go to Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, a wine-growing village in the Corbières region that was particularly affected by the flames , to provide "support to local stakeholders in the sector and concrete aid measures for farmers, particularly affected winegrowers," according to the Ministry of Agriculture. A meeting will be devoted to "emergency measures," but also to "sustainable solutions to rebuild and strengthen the resilience of affected farms," according to the same source.

After Prime Minister François Bayrou and Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, she is the third member of the government to go there.

In two days, the fire, which started on August 5, killed one person, covered 16,000 hectares , destroyed 36 houses, around twenty agricultural sheds and devastated 1,000 to 1,500 hectares of vines , just a few weeks before the harvest. In addition to the crops destroyed by the flames, oenologists will have to determine whether the spared grapes can still be vinified, because prolonged exposure to smoke alters their taste. Winegrowers, already overwhelmed by climatic and economic hazards, are therefore hoping for a substantial sum.

Ludovic Roux, president of the Aude Chamber of Agriculture, also wants the state to grant special status to the department. "It's difficult to be profitable in a Mediterranean area like the Corbières, due to the drought and the climate. We need specific support. A compensatory allowance for climate handicaps, just as mountain areas benefit from a compensatory allowance for natural handicaps under the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy)," he argued before the Minister of Agriculture's visit.