Winemakers in France are suffering losses due to falling sales. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic and the European Union will allocate € 200 million for a programme to support farmers, which provides for the destruction of wine. This was reported by the Financial Times.
According to the newspaper, the wine will be distilled into ethanol, which can be used in industry, for example, for the manufacture of perfume or water-alcohol gels. It is noted that this is part of a wider programme to support French winemakers, whose problems are directly related to falling sales in France, competition in foreign markets, as well as falling sales in China.
Financial Times points out that the French authorities have developed a scheme to pay compensation for cutting down vineyards. According to the publication, about 1 thousand winemakers in Bordeaux have agreed to this, 9.2 thousand hectares of vines – 8% of the total area of cultivation in the region – will be destroyed.
According to the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, the government of the Republic is trying to “stop the collapse of prices and help winemakers find new sources of income”, they need to “adapt to changes in consumption and adapt production to the requirements of tomorrow”.
Winemakers expect a wine surplus of 3 million hectolitres this year, with unclaimed product accounting for 7% of total production in 2022.
According to the International Organisation of Viticulture and Vine (OIV), France is the second largest wine producer in the world after Italy. In 2022, French winemakers produced 46.6 million hectolitres of wine. Russia is in 11th place with 4.7 million hectolitres.
Wines and spirits remain at the top of French exports. Last year, export revenues totalled €17.2bn – plus 10% year-on-year, according to data from the Federation of French Wine and Spirits Exporters.
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