A Trip to Northern Portugal, The Cost of the Three Storms and a Wake-Up Call in Our Farming Venture.

The Sahara dust replacing the sun this week shortly before the rain returned

Following Rozanne’s sixtieth birthday last year, we still had one of her presents to use, a voucher for a vineyard-come-country-house, Terra Rosa, in Northern Portugal. We did manage to make it to Italy in September, a must-attend, to celebrate our son Selby and his now-wife, Maggie’s, post-wedding celebration. Due to health issues and my reluctance to travel, we ended up using it only a few weeks before expiry, a full year after receiving it. It was one of these things put off and put off, and when you finally do, you regret not doing it sooner, although both of us had been very keen to visit that part of Portugal. It was one of the few areas in the country we had not visited. Thanks to Erik and Tineke, our Dutch friends, and our daughter Storm and her long-term partner Duncan for what turned out to be a fabulous present, we had a fantastic time. We had an extra hour of travel because the main highway north is still not passable due to a major bridge that sustained severe damage from the storms. The detour added an hour to a normal two-and-a-half-hour trip. What was striking was how concentrated the severe storm had been; fifty kilometres north, the damage became much less and by the time we reached our destination, a fallen tree was not to be seen. Water, yes, plenty of water, but little wind damage. Further, it rained the whole way there, but to our surprise, the next day we woke up to bright sunshine, and so it remained for the rest of the trip, and it has been the case since then. We were there two nights, which gave us a full day to explore.

The view from the restaurant Pedro Alto where we had lunch on our trip. All the fishing boats hauled up on land because of the weather

We travelled up to the Spanish border at Valença, then west over to the coast and down to Viana do Castelo, where we had a wonderful seafood lunch before returning to the vineyard in time for supper and some of the excellent home-produced products. The wine was so good in fact, that Rozanne perhaps partook of a little too much, as that night she decided a midnight swim was in order, despite the temperatures dropping to 4°C. Needless to say, against her strongest protests, I took a video of her skinny dipping and shared it with the family. Not for your eyes, I am afraid. After supper, we had the place to ourselves as all the staff live off the property, hence her intrepid action.

Rozanne outside the old country house at Terra Rosa

“Even in illness and old age, you can have fun. It is just harder to make the effort and find the time.” - Peter McSporran

Now, almost a month since storm Kirsten hit, followed by three further storms, the cost is slowly being quantified and recognised. Kirsten is regarded as the most damaging storm on record for Portugal, causing damage and interruption exceeding €6 billion. There have been higher losses of life, as in 1967, when 500 people perished in floods but the collateral damage to infrastructure, buildings, crops and businesses was much greater this time. 

It is always those who can least afford it lose most

“You should never measure financial loss against human loss. Even in war, the human loss is always greater than the financial cost.” - Peter McSporran

It is exceedingly difficult to quantify the damage. To infrastructure more easily than to businesses and personal inconvenience. It is said our road to Penela, an important link between towns in our area, will not be operational for at least another six months due to a large landslide that has taken it out. A five-minute ride to Penela, where our local shops, post office, doctor, and clinic are, now takes 30 minutes, on roads unsuitable for public transport or heavy goods vehicles. Their detour is much greater. As this road is a major conduit between Condexia, Penela, Avelar and Ansio, all the businesses along the road, from restaurants to service stations, bus services have all been badly affected. Our local restaurant, once humming, is now very quiet, with patronage down by more than 50 percent from normal. Meanwhile, the closure is causing massive delays, additional expenses, and inconvenience, especially for the non-driving elderly who want to attend the clinic for routine treatment, let alone emergencies. Even our local fire department suffered more than €500,000 in damage to its station, which they will have to pay to repair. 

A flattened forest bearing witness to the strength of the storm

The impact of the storm is immeasurable. Vineyards and olive plantations are flooded, rice fields are metres under water, a lot of rice is grown west of us, and all have been submerged for weeks. Foresters no longer fell timber; they salvage it. Builders no longer build; they repair. As do roofers. And normal road maintenance has been abandoned to allow repairs. Due to the amount of rain and waterlogging, potholes have appeared where never before, and restaurant and service station owners watch for passing customers who will never come. How will their businesses survive?

Funding for both infrastructure repairs and assistance to individuals for repairs to house and business premises is said to be in the billions. I wonder how much the EU will bring to their party? After all, are we not all one now? No matter what, it will have a huge impact on the economy of this small country, which, until the storm, was the best-performing economy in Europe.

“Nature and its phenomenon, no matter how advanced and how arrogant we become in harnessing it, has an uncanny habit of reminding us we are but mere mortals.” - Peter McSporran

Back to 2002, while I was busy on our scheme to move farmers north, Graham Rae had started our farming operations on the land we leased from Zambezi Ranching, an area of some twenty thousand hectares where we could pick the fields we chose to cultivate although it had to fit in with the main business on the property, that was cattle ranching with some 9,000 head. The property and the company belonged to Carl Irwin and Francis Grogan, who were also the owners of ZAMBEEF, and the land had somehow been taken out of the assets of the original Zambezi Ranching, when it was part of TZI Corporation, which had extensive ranching and farming properties in Choma, Mazabuka and Chisamba. Grogan and Irwin had the Chisamba properties, while Hillary Duckworth had the Choma and Kaloma properties. Presently, the names of the other owners in Mazabuku properties slip my mind. Anyway, all were properties of the original TZI group, with Hilary Duckworth as CEO. As I say, the land we leased was then in private hands by 2002. For some reason, on arriving in Zambia, we thought the rainfall was more reliable than in Zimbabwe, despite Lusaka having rainfall similar to Harare's. That may be as it was, but the year we started farming there was one of the worst droughts in a while, and in the early months of 2002, our crops failed due to it. All were being grown on borrowed money, germinating well only to wilt and be virtual right-offs. At the same time, Universal Leaf Tobacco (ULT) were insisting that, as the scheme was my idea and the main sponsor, our company, Soilmasters, should also be part of the scheme. I was extremely reluctant, as was Vernon Nicolle, while Graham, the man of the ground, was probably by that time desperate for cash from anywhere. In light of the drought, I found myself once again trying to raise more money, this time for our survival. Further, we had tried to find underground water and had only limited luck in the red soil section, Murula, adjacent to Chisamba village. We, however, had identified a large dam site on the Chongwe River, on our Indambo farm section and set about getting water rights. The land owner on the other side of the river was the incumbent South African ruling party, the ANC, and they had no interest in getting involved in building a dam or the water, as they were not, and probably never had, actively farmed the land. Equally, they had no wish to stop us building it. As the farm was on Grogan and Irwin’s land, they were more than happy for the lessees to build the dam. No offer of financial assistance, though. Grogan could pull a lot of strings as we were to witness, no details, and before we knew it, he had a water right and a dam design. The only problem was that it would cost close to USD$500,000. Money we did not have. If we were going to go into tobacco, we would have to double-crop due to the infrastructure costs of curing and handling this crop, and, further, to successfully grow seed maize, we needed irrigation. So there I was, trying to find money for the follow-up season after drought, to avoid insolvency before we barely started, resisting getting involved in growing tobacco for ULT in my own and partners' right, and crazily trying to raise the money to build a very large dam, to be the biggest private dam in Zambia at that time. Do not think about irrigation costs yet; it would eventually cost twice as much as the dam. It was the beginning of the most stressful three years of my life. The Economist even wrote about the hardships we faced when starting up in Zambia. 

Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.