les vignerons dans la rue mardi pour obtenir des aides
How did we get here ? For the most pessimistic, the situation has never really improved since the overproduction crisis of 2004-2005 (2). At the time, winegrowers asked on the bulk market – the heart of the machine – for a minimum price per barrel (900 litres) of 1,000 euros, for the largest red Bordeaux AOC. Eighteen years later, these wines are exchanged at less than 700 euros/barrel; and we have to stick to estimates because, faced with the magnitude of the crisis, the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB) has decided to no longer communicate these key indicators.
Find 100 million euros
More recently – and all AOCs are impacted – a losing machine has started: a succession of small harvests (frost, hail) as production costs rise; slowdown in sales in French supermarkets and in China, the two main components; fall in sales of red wine in favor of white and rosé.
Result: the Gironde produces far more wine than it can sell, and many winegrowers no longer manage. Driven by the grassroots, the CIVB and the elected officials are now appealing for help from the public authorities to subsidize a voluntary and definitive uprooting.
At the same time, it is a question of reducing the surface area of the vineyard by 10,000 ha – going from 110,000 to 100,000 ha – and allowing winegrowers who volunteer to uproot them to receive, in return, a bonus which could be rise to 10,000 euros/ha. It is therefore necessary to find 100 million to finance this plan which would rebalance the supply of wine in the department and the demand.
To date, not a single euro has been found, although the subject has been on the table for months. Hence this demonstration to put Brussels, government and local communities under pressure. Viticulture being a local wealth, it is unlikely that the lines will not move.
(1) At the time, the winegrowers marched through several towns in France.
(2) In December 2005, angry winegrowers walled up the entrance to the CIVB, in the town centre.