France and the EU will allocate €200 million to help winemakers suffering from falling demand
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The French government and the European Union have agreed to allocate €200 million to help French winemakers suffering from a significant drop in demand for wine this year, reports France 24.
French Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesno announced last Friday, August 25, that the initial €160 million in EU aid, approved in February of this year, was eventually supplemented by €40 million from the French authorities.
The program will distill excess wine into ethanol, which can be sold for industrial uses such as perfumes or hydroalcoholic gels. In addition, the authorities are ready to help wineries cut down part of the vineyards and occupy these areas with other crops.
A similar program was already underway by the French authorities in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, industry representatives consider the current amount of financial support to be insufficient. Initially, the winemakers sought assistance for €200 million, considering the €160 million proposed at the beginning of the year to be insufficient to support the sector.
“€200 million allows us to develop a financing plan similar to the previous anti-crisis plan for 2020, in which €211 million was allocated for an oversupply of 2.6 million hectoliters,” Jérôme Despay, president of the association of winemakers FranceAgriMer, said at the time. However, later the volume of overproduction of wine was estimated even higher – at 3 million hectoliters. This is approximately 7% of total production in 2022. In this regard, winemakers have increased the requirements for the amount of assistance.
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