FRANCE: Bordeaux winemakers are demanding government compensation to destroy vines and pour unsold stocks down the drain, a move they say is needed to save their livelihoods. The vineyard owners say sales and prices have collapsed because of overproduction and altered drinking habits.
Bordeaux winemakers are demanding government compensation to destroy vines and pour unsold stocks down the drain, a move they say is needed to save their livelihoods. The vineyard owners say sales and prices have collapsed because of overproduction and altered drinking habits.
In France, wine consumption is thought to have decreased by two-thirds over the past 60 years, with red wines suffering the most. A survey conducted in November last year shows that red wine consumption has decreased by 32% over the past ten years, mostly among people between 18 and 35.
The survey discovered that fewer people were eating red meat, fewer families were dining together, and more homes had single parents who did not drink alone as the main causes of the reduction.
During a time of economic growth around the world, France is one of the markets where alcohol-free drinks are growing the fastest.
A third of the 4,000 vineyards in the area, according to Didier Cousinez, a representative for winemakers in the Gironde, are having difficulties, and local families are suffering.
The Bordeaux winemakers want to remove 10% of their vines, or around 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres). They demand that the government pay them up to €10,000 (£8,800) in damages for each acre that is lost.
To create room for this year’s vintage and raise prices, they also want to burn unsold stocks. According to them, without doing so, the industry runs the risk of failing and endangering the jobs of 80,000 people. Representatives from the area say that about 300 struggling vineyard owners have said they want to give up the business completely.
Demands from the winemakers came as 3,400 wine producers from 52 different nations visited the annual Vinexpo wine fair in Paris.
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