2023-07-20 15:49:19
“My father and my grandfather had never seen this. I think I will lose 30% of my harvest”, Julien Luro is a winegrower in Targon, 20 km south-east of Bordeaux, where he cultivates 50 hectares. On Wednesday July 19, he testified to the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, in Ladaux (Gironde), of the seriousness of the mildew epidemic which is currently affecting the vineyards of the South-West.
“Mildew spares no one this year”, affecting conventional and organic farmers, who only have copper to fight against, supports Jean-Louis Dubourg, president of the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture. This parasitic fungus-alga attacks the leaves and then the grapes. It would thus have affected 90% of the 86 reference plots monitored by the chamber, destroying half of the bunches on these plots. In particular those of Merlot, a grape variety which represents two thirds of the area of vines in the department.
“Extraordinary rainfall and temperatures”
Mildew took advantage “unusual rainfall and temperatures” to spread, explains the chamber of agriculture: rainfall above 100 millimeters in June – against less than 70 mm on average over the past thirty years; twenty-five days above the threshold of 70% hygrometry, “from which the air is considered to be very humid” ; and a thermometer displaying almost 2°C more than the 30-year-old normals.
The presentation of these figures is not trivial: insurance does not cover the risk of mildew as such, but the excess humidity that causes it. Message received by Marc Fesneau, who should plead their case with insurers: “This crisis is linked to the humidity present over time, he estimated. The important thing is to report on the situation to feed the discussions and trigger the insurance mechanism. »
The precise extent of the damage will not be known until harvest time, from the end of August, and the fruits may have been spared even if their vines are affected. There is therefore no question for the moment of rushing, by recognizing for example from the outset the state of agricultural calamity for the vines, as three deputies from Gironde have demanded, because “the sector is pretty well insured”, according to Marc Fesneau. The policies could reimburse crop losses ranging from 20 to 50 percent.
The issue of banning certain pesticides
The tenant of Rue de Varenne has shown himself to listen to other grievances from winegrowers on the planned ban on certain anti-mildew pesticides. “Molecules have been removed. If we were to lose others, including copper, it would be too serious. We have to keep them even if there are restrictions”underlines Bernard Farges, vice-president of the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB).
“I share this point of view but we have to find the way”, replied Marc Fesneau. According to him, the extension of the registration of copper, expected for 2025, should not present a problem. The case of two chemical products is more complicated: Metiram, which has just been recognized as an endocrine disruptor by EFSA, should be gradually withdrawn in 2024; on the other hand, Folpel, classified as CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic) and widely used in Bordeaux, is currently being examined by ANSES with a view to pursuing approval. The minister hinted that he would plead for flexibility.
Marc Fesneau also invited winegrowers to turn to grape varieties resistant to mildew, which are being recognized by certain appellations, and require much less chemical treatment.
Treat wastelands
Responding to another of the grievances of winegrowers, Marc Fesneau announced a “working with the Department of Justice”to find ways to force the owners of some 2,000 hectares of abandoned vines (out of the 130,000 in Bordeaux) to treat them, because they are hotbeds of mildew that are impossible to eradicate.
Julien Luro, for example, estimates that he has lost an entire 6-hectare plot “despite diligent treatment” of fungicides – 11 passages –, because of a 17-hectare adjoining wasteland, whose owner is retired. “Of course, we are touching on the right to property. But it’s as if during the Covid, we had let sick people rub shoulders with fragile people., he notes. However, many of these wastelands cannot be affected by the uprooting plan launched at the beginning of June, which concerned vines capable of producing for the past five years.
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More than 9,000 hectares candidates for uprooting
Bordeaux winegrowers have requested the uprooting of 9,251 hectares as part of an aid plan for the first French AOC vineyard, weighed down by overproduction and hit this summer by an intense episode of mildew, the interprofession announced on Wednesday.
Some 1,085 pre-applicationsfor a grubbing-up premium of €6,000 per hectare have been filed, said Allan Sichel, President of the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB). “On these files, which still represent 20% of winegrowers in Gironde, there are 300 winegrowers who wish to completely stop their profession”, underlined the leader. The number of final applications, which will open in September, could nevertheless change “with this episode of mildew which is very destructive”he added.
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