2023-09-04 21:20:47
France is regarding to destroy 80 million gallons (302.8 million liters) of wine at a cost of $216 million in order to help producers who have to deal with large surpluses.
While fewer and fewer people are consuming wine and it is becoming more and more expensive to produce it due in particular to extreme weather conditions, several regions of France, such as Bordeaux in particular, produce too much wine and cannot sell their surpluses at prices low enough to make a profit, reports the Washington Post.
The European Union first granted $172 million to France to help the vineyards, and the French government then granted additional sums last week.
Producers will use these funds to convert their wine into pure alcohol that can be used for other products such as perfumes or cleaning products.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the money “will be used to stop the fall in prices while ensuring that producers find new sources of income.”
Each Frenchman consumed an average of 136 liters of wine per year in 1926, but the figure is only 40 liters today.
According to University of New Hampshire political science professor Elizabeth Carter, wine overproduction is not a new problem.
“I’m not even a little surprised that France wants to destroy its surplus to increase prices by limiting the quantity,” she said. It’s a problem they’ve been dealing with since the 19th century.”
The problem has however been exacerbated in recent years, in particular due to the pandemic and the increase in energy prices linked to the war in Ukraine, in particular, reports AFP.
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