The State and the interprofession of Bordeaux wines will finance the “sanitary” uprooting of vines to the tune of several tens of millions of euros, to deal with the overproduction crisis in Gironde, announced Wednesday the Minister of l Agriculture Marc Fesneau.
The latter advanced state aid of at least 30 million, which could go up to “38 or 40 million euros”, at the Paris Agricultural Show. This envelope must be supplemented to the tune of 18 million euros by the Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council (CIVB), which must vote on it at a general meeting on April 11.
Aid of up to 6,000 euros per hectare
In addition to these sums and a distillation campaign for surpluses announced last month by the government, the regional council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine will contribute with aid for the conversion of farms to the tune of 10 million euros to support “at less than 300 winegrowers”.
Aid for “sanitary” uprooting, over the next two years, covers around 6,000 hectares in Gironde, up to 6,000 euros per hectare, in order to fight against flavescence dorée, a disease which threatens vines left to dry. abandonment. CIVB funding will cover 3,000 additional hectares.
“Peanuts in relation to the requests we have made” estimates a collective
A thousand winegrowers had demonstrated in Bordeaux on December 6 to demand the uprooting of vines and try to resolve the overproduction crisis affecting the first AOC vineyard in France, with 110,000 hectares of cultivated vines. The “Viti 33” collective, at the origin of this gathering, demanded the uprooting of at least 15,000 hectares, with a premium of 10,000 euros per hectare.
“We are starting to be heard, we see that people are moving,” reacted Didier Cousiney, spokesperson for the collective. “The problem is that it is not enough (…) Every day, there are more winegrowers, more surfaces, which are added to those which are already impacted”, he said. said. “What we are given, we take it, we are not going to refuse it, but we find that it is peanuts compared to the requests that we have made and compared to the distress of the Bordeaux vineyards. »
One out of three winegrowers considers themselves in difficulty
In Bordeaux, which produces 85% of red wine, the less prestigious appellations are suffering from a collapse in prices and overproduction estimated at one million hectolitres. One in three Bordeaux winegrowers considers themselves “in difficulty”, according to a study published at the end of January by the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture.
Last month, the Ministry of Agriculture announced a distillation campaign endowed with 160 million euros to reduce stocks, a measure described as “window dressing” by the “Viti 33” collective.