French winegrowers struggle to cope with supply pressure on off-road diesel

n several regions, quotas have been applied to off-road diesel and winegrowers only know how much it will cost when they are delivered. Although suppliers are advising against it, some are choosing to stockpile fuel.

“I'm lucky enough to have placed my last large orders for off-road diesel at the end of the year”, says Laurent Rousseau from the namesake vineyard in Abzac, Gironde. “I’ve got some stocks and for the moment I haven't suffered too much from the price hikes”. He has, however, become aware of supply pressure. “I asked my supplier Alvéa for 1,000 litres so that I would be all prepared for when I start under-row machine weeding over about thirty hectares. I was only able to get 500 litres, whereas I need more than 150 litres per working day”. This week, Rousseau suffered another setback. “I wanted to order 1,000 litres of heating oil to heat my tanks of wine but I could only get 300 litres”, he says. “Even though it's March, people are afraid of how the situation in Ukraine will evolve going forward and are filling up their tanks to heat their homes”. Rousseau has no idea how much he will pay for the fuel, either, and he won’t know until delivery.

In Epernay, the supplier CPE, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, is advising winegrowers against stockpiling fuel. “Off-road diesel at the moment costs almost as much as diesel at the filling station, but we have been told that the price will drop”, said a company employee on Monday 14 March. “Whichever way things go, our day-to-day life is very tense, the prices go one way or the other all the time and we have to divide the amount we deliver to our customers by 2 or even 3 so that everyone gets fuel”.

Théo Xavier, a winegrower in Beaumes-de-Venise, was able to take part in a grouped order launched by the Young Farmers' organisation by e-mail. “It took me 5 minutes and meant that I paid €1.63 per litre instead of almost €2. We can't change the market price, but we can regain a sense of co-operation. And above all, farmers should benefit from tax exemptions on off-road diesel, like fishermen”. For the time being, the Prime Minister has announced “a fuel discount of 15 centimes per litre in filling stations”. The discount will apply to the public at large and to industries, and will include off-road diesel for farmers. The measure comes into force on 1 April 2022.