Status: 08.02.2023 3:48 p.m
Declining wine consumption has led to sales problems and excess quantities in France. The government now wants to take millions of hectoliters off the market and use it to produce industrial alcohol.
France has the most famous wine-growing regions in the world – wine from there, of all places, is now to be partially processed into industrial alcohol. The government wants to spend 160 million euros this year on the distillation of surplus wine, the Ministry of Agriculture announced in Paris. This is intended to support the winegrowers who suffer from a lack of sales. About 2.5 million hectoliters could be distilled this year.
Wine becomes disinfectant and perfume
In France, aid was recently given to distill excess wine during the corona pandemic. At that time, the alcohol was used, among other things, to produce disinfectants. Distilled alcohol can also be used to make perfume or bioethanol. Half of the funds for the distillation should come from the EU. “We have to attract new consumers and work on the image of the wine,” said Bernard Farges, chairman of the national winegrowers’ association.
Less red wine consumption
In particular, it is about red wine from the Bordeaux region. The Languedoc and Rhône valley regions are also affected to a lesser extent. The winegrowers cited the declining consumption of red wine as the reason for the sales problems. 70 years ago, the French would have drunk an average of 130 liters a year, today it is only 40 liters, according to Jérôme Despey, secretary general of the agricultural association FNSEA. Inflation is also given as a reason: in 2022, sales of red wine in supermarkets fell by 15 percent. Exports to China also collapsed due to the Corona crisis.
decommissioning premiums demanded
Many winegrowers complain about structural overproduction and are demanding set-aside premiums. The uprooting of vines is to be subsidized in order to adapt the acreage to demand. In the Gironde department, a winegrowers’ association wants to set aside 15,000 hectares and is demanding a premium of 10,000 euros per hectare. In the long term, France’s wine sector will have to adjust to the necessary adjustments to climate change and to changing domestic and export demand, the Ministry of Agriculture announced. The government will help create a strategy.