The French government announced it will spend 200 million euros ($216 million) to destroy a surplus of wine to help shore up falling prices, a drop in demand, and an oversupply that has hit producers hard.
Winemakers in the famed regions of Bordeaux and Languedoc have struggled with persistent after-effects of the pandemic, a change in customer taste away from wine and toward craft beers, and a cost-of-living crisis plaguing the industry France24 and BBC.com reported. The war in Ukraine has caused supply-chain problems for products like fertilizer, and climate change has affected growing seasons.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau at a Friday news conference told reporters the government intervention was “aimed at stopping prices from collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again,” France24 reported. The money will help farmers cut back on overproduction and shift to other products, such as olives, according to BBC.com. Much of the funding will buy up excess supply so that it can be converted to alcohol to use in items like hand sanitizer, cleaning products, and perfume,” BBC.com said.
The European Union initially gave France about $172 million to destroy about 80 million gallons of wine. The French government topped it up to about $216 million, according to the Washington Post.
Olivier Gergaud, a professor of economics at France’s KEDGE Business School who researches food and wine, told the Post, “We need to help this market transition to a better future, maybe with wines that would respect the environment. Adaption to climate change is a real challenge.”
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