2023-06-05 12:03:40
Winegrower in Pujols (Gironde), Frédéric Arino had a hard time earning a living, he now works at a loss. This owner of 19 hectares in AOC Bordeaux has gone from €15,000 in annual income in 2020 to a deficit of €16,000 last year. Like many Bordeaux winegrowers, he fell victim to the collapse in consumption of red wine in France, the region’s specialty (–30% in ten years).
In January, more than one out of three Girondin winegrowers declared themselves in difficulty with the Chamber of Agriculture. «The barrel of Bordeaux sold for €1,100 in 2020 is worth around €600 todaysays the winemaker. During this time, diesel, fertilizer and phytosanitary bills have increased by more than 20%. Fortunately I was able to sell land, but I dig into these reserves to run the farm. In two years I have nothing left. »
57 million euros in uprooting aid
For a year, Frédéric Arino, 65, has therefore mobilized with the Viti 33 collective, created last year to ask for uprooting aid. These were presented this Monday morning in Gironde by Marc Fesneau, the Minister of Agriculture. Endowed with 57 million euros, this plan, which will concern 9,500 hectares out of the 108,000 in Bordeaux, provides aid of €6,000 per hectare grubbed up, which will be paid after the 2023 harvest on the principle of “first come, first served”. .
In detail, 19 million euros will be paid by the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB) and 38 million by the State to those who cease their activity, officially for health reasons, in particular to fight against flavescence dorée, a bacteria that contaminates the vines. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is adding an envelope of 10 million euros for winegrowers who wish to diversify – we are talking about olive trees, hazelnut trees or cereals.
For Bernard Farges, president of the National Committee of Wine Interprofessions and figure of the CIVB, “it’s a real subject, because the abandonment of the vines leads to the creation of outbreaks of disease, including mildew, scattered throughout the vineyard”. But for most observers, this health reason is above all the only way to have the European Union accept this direct aid from France to farmers.
A plan deemed disappointing
After months of negotiations within a “crisis cell”, formed the day after the demonstrations of hundreds of winegrowers in Bordeaux last December, the Viti 33 collective is disappointed. He demanded €10,000 per hectare and the uprooting of 15,000 to 30,000 hectares to act on overproduction.
“Uprooting vines costs €2,000 per hectare on average, there won’t be much left once suppliers and taxes have been paid”, considers Frédéric Arino, who today hesitates to resort to it – to be entitled to his retirement pension, he needs to uproot all his vines, in accordance with a rule imposed by the defense and management organization (ODG) of its name.
2022 harvest: wine production on the rise despite the drought
During the public meetings to present the plan, which brought together 600 people, they were above all put off by one of the conditions of the State, imposed by Europe: to set aside the land for at least twenty years, in order to ‘« improve biodiversity and habitats”. “For winegrowers who have worked for generations, it is an aberration, a heresy to lose all right to produce anything on their land”, tip Didier Cousiney, from Viti 33.
European conditions deemed absurd
«We are going to abandon our soils when we need them for our food sovereignty”, sighs Frederic Arino. Like him, Éric Étienne, winegrower in Bordeaux AOC, could do without help. At over 60, he sees himself neither diversifying nor freezing land he hoped to pass on to his children. «Without the possibility of exploitation, it will only become a source of expense, as it will always be subject to property taxes,” he explains.
The Confédération paysanne de Gironde also denounces a “journey into absurdity”. “We are going to subsidize wild boar brambles more than diversification”, believes Dominique Techer, its spokesperson. When the CIVB bets on the development of whites and rosés, or on the resumption of exports, the trade unionist criticizes the « bricolage » of the interprofession and the State in the face of deconsumption, which has been going on for fifteen years.
«It is a major industrial accident, like the steel industry in France”, picks up Dominique Techer, who advocates a «land defeasance structure» which would make it possible to completely reorient Gironde agriculture by taking climate change into account. “But this cannot be assumed by an interprofessional organization which wants to continue to grow. »
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The second wine producing region in France
Bordeaux enjoys a perfectly adapted climate optimal ripening of the grape. The clay-limestone soils bring freshness and humidity to the vines. The 65 different appellations are explained by the diversity of the terroirs, the types of soil, the grape varieties, the cultivation and winemaking practices.
With more than 108,000 hectares of planted area, the 5,300 wine growers in the region produce 4.6 million hectoliters of wine per year, of which 85% red wine, 9% white wine, 4% rosé and 2% crémant. The region is the second largest producer in the country behind Languedoc.
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