2023-06-07 22:36:56
The French vineyard, and more particularly Bordeaux, is in crisis. Many winegrowers in Gironde are victims of the collapse of red wine consumption in France.
Last January, no less than 1,320 said they were in difficulty, nearly a third of the 4,000 professional winegrowers in the department, according to the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture. The latter also indicates that more than a quarter of the winegrowers who are going through this bad patch want to put an end to their activity and proceed to the total uprooting of their vines.
The demand for wine not being there, the volumes produced are too high and prices are collapsing. To avoid overproduction, 9,500 ha will thus be uprooted. A number calculated by the interprofession of Bordeaux wines, several months ago, to adapt supply to demand.
It is the less prestigious appellations that are suffering from the collapse in prices and from this overproduction, estimated at one million hectolitres. The grands crus are not affected by this crisis.
“A way to prepare for the reconquest of the market”
“The uprooting of vines in Gironde should not be understood as an element of setback, but rather as a way of preparing for the reconquest of the market”, had indicated Marc Fesneau at the Salon de l’agriculture. The Minister of Agriculture and the representatives of Bordeaux wines have thus signed the release of an envelope of 57 million euros (38 million supported by the State, 19 by the interprofession) to “densify” the Bordeaux vineyard.
By uprooting their vines, winegrowers have the choice between converting their land to other crops, or leaving it fallow for twenty years.
This operation is also carried out with the aim of combating flavescence dorée. It is a disease of the vine, at the origin of very important losses of harvests, due to a bacterium whose propagation is favored by the cessation of treatments on the plots left abandoned. In order to fight against this disease as a preventive measure and to prevent farmers from abandoning their vines, this uprooting plan is awarded at the rate of 6,000 euros per hectare.
Some organisations, including the “Viti 33” collective, demanded the uprooting of at least 15,000 ha with a premium of 10,000 euros per hectare. According to them, the aid announced is not sufficient while many winegrowers are too old to embark on a project to diversify their culture.
The first plots will be uprooted after the harvest, that is to say from October 2023.
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