The wine crisis in France is not routine but pressing business

or the French wine industry, the time for procrastination after the European and French elections is over Рaction needs to be taken fast by providing practical responses to the demands voiced for months now, claims J̩r̫me Despey, chairman of the wine committee at national intervention board FranceAgriMer which met on July 10.

Jérôme Despey: I reminded the ministry of Agriculture of the discontent expressed by the contact group within the France-Spain-Italy joint wine industry committee. There are a lot of commonalities between the Spanish, Italians and French in terms of market observations and climate and economic issues. There is a shared urgency of the need to identify the different levers that should be used by Member States. For us, the issue is about temporary and permanent vine pulls. Spain is pursuing the same strategic direction. Italy’s viewpoint on permanent vine pulls is more nuanced, but shares the same objectives when it comes to temporary vine pulls. Even if the political timeframe has been upended, and without wishing to anticipate what will happen next, we expect the government and a minister of Agriculture to provide solutions for the wine industry. The minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau remains in place and must manage current matters.  I am asking him to call the European commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, to make progress following the notification by France at the start of July to European authorities about temporary and permanent vine pulls.

JD: We need to be attentive and cautious. The HLG was requested by Copa-Cogeca to work on the future of the industry with a view to establishing structural aspects and in light of the next CAP (Common Agricultural Policy). In no way are urgent schemes to be referred to the HLG – otherwise, we’re just losing more time. The timescale for providing the resources that meet the needs of winegrowers would no longer be relevant. We have to keep to the dates discussed with the Commission (where a single sign-up for vine pulls would be made available in mid-October 2024).

We will be attentive to the intentions of the European Commission. The HLG will meet on September 11 with just one sequence for industry representatives. A single meeting with the industry during harvest time is just not acceptable. We want to be more involved.