Groups of winegrowers from the regions of Ñuble, Biobío, Maule, O’Higgins and Valparaíso, requested the Agriculture Commission of the Chamber of Deputies to adopt control measures for the vinifera grape and wine market, in matters such as transparency, price publication and wine adulteration.
Within the framework of the harvest that has already begun in Maule and should begin in the coming weeks in Ñuble, these organizations, articulated around the National Coalition of Viñateros, such as Viñateras Bravas del Itata and the Communal Association of Viñateros of San Nicolás , among others, sent a letter to the Agriculture Commission, in which they stated that, “we are facing a new catastrophic harvest with prices paid by the greats of the wine industry led by Concha y Toro of up to $100 per kilo for strains. fine French varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere, Syrah, Merlot, etc., well below the increasing production costs that already exceed $300 per kilo for an average productivity of 12 thousand kilos per hectare, which is unsustainable.
Along these lines, they criticized that “there is no serious, fundamental measure that would mitigate the crisis, much less for the recovery of the sector,” while they regretted “a total abandonment by the Ministry of Agriculture.”
“What’s more, not even the sectoral laws approved in Congress, which are the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, are being complied with or monitored, because to date there is no published grape price as required by commercial transactions law 20,656, which does not distinguishes whether or not it is by contract, keeping the market in total darkness, fertile ground for abuse,” they denounced in the letter.
Table grape vinification
Likewise, they denounced that, “commerce is flooded with products that do not meet the minimum requirements of Alcohol Law 18,455,” ensuring that consumers pay for wine, “but they are sold anything, which is unfair competition for our grapes and genuine wine, which they pay for at ridiculous prices of up to $180 per liter,” in reference to the vinification of table grapes.
They stressed that, “we would not ask for your support once more if the sectoral laws were complied with and monitored, if we had fair prices for our grapes/wine or prices that reflect the value of Chilean wine in the international market, correcting distortions, which was a promise of President Boric’s campaign and then the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, made a commitment along the same lines in March 2022, in front of leaders and mayors.
For this reason, they reiterated some demands that they have been raising in recent years, such as “evaluating the creation of a ‘Cotrisa del Vino’, which buys at prices that reflect the value of the wine in the export market, vinifies and markets”; and “define reference or equivalent prices for grapes and wine to producers, which reflect the value of Chilean wine in the export market.”
They also pointed to the “revision of a short law to prohibit the winemaking of table grapes or support for the bill presented in 2021 by senators Rincón, Coloma, Galilea and Carvajal, (bulletin No. 14551-01), which would come to eliminate in the bud the fraud publicly recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture, of 250-300 million liters due to fraudulent mixtures with table grapes, which represents almost 30% of national production.”
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