In a letter from two national agricultural organisations addressed to minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy Eric Wiebes, farmers from the province of Groningen are calling for compensation for damaged property and depreciation to the value of their buildings and land.
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the letter lists 3,000 agriculture-related businesses in the induced earthquake-prone area that have been damaged, including cracks in storage units and excess water in their fields, and whose real estate value has depreciated as a result.
Wiebes called for the inventory of damages caused by the quakes himself during a protest held by the farmers in The Hague on 1 February. According to protest organiser Ate Hylke Kuipers, “Wiebes asked us to summarize the main problems the farmers are facing on a single page, so now he’s got it.”
The recently founded advocacy group Stichting Boerenbelang Mijnbouw is representing the farmers. Kuipers says the group needs to have 400 to 500 members, each of whom will pay 350 euros, in order to prepare a class action lawsuit.
