The French government is allocating €200m (£171.6m) to destroy surplus wine and support producers.
It comes amid a cocktail of problems for the industry, including a falling demand for wine as more people drink craft beer.
Overproduction and the cost of living crisis are also hitting the industry.
Most of the €200m will be used to buy excess stock, with the alcohol sold for use in items such as hand sanitiser, cleaning products and perfume.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
It comes amid a cocktail of problems for the industry, including a falling demand for wine as more people drink craft beer.
Most of the €200m will be used to buy excess stock, with the alcohol sold for use in items such as hand sanitiser, cleaning products and perfume.
In a bid to cut back on the overproduction, money will also be available for winegrowers to change to other products, such as olives.
In funnelling the money into the industry, the French government aims to stop “prices collapsing… so that wine-makers can find sources of revenue again”, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said.
Despite the financial help - an initial EU fund of €160m which the French government topped up to €200m - the wine industry needs to “look to the future, think about consumer changes … and adapt”, he added.
European Commission data for the year to June shows that wine consumption has fallen 7% in Italy, 10% in Spain, 15% in France, 22% in Germany and 34% in Portugal, while wine production across the bloc - the world’s biggest wine-making area - rose 4%.
The original article contains 211 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 12%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Crazy they couldn’t just export it. Bunch of countries love wine
Globally there’s a glut of low quality wine.
Tarrifs and shipping costs eat up too much profit margin.
Not just globally, also locally. At my house.
Sounds like you need to invite some friends over to help with the overstock situation.
I’ve preemptively taken your advice on board, and the sad reality is that the glut was short lived. Looks like I’ll be going up the road again…
They don’t help with the tariffs and shipping costs.
that sucks, wine preserves long time after all, they could save it as Canada’s maple syrup or US Cheese reserves
This is cheap wine which doesn’t age well.
couldn’t they still distill it and sell it as something else?
That’s exactly what they’re doing, hence the mention of hand sanitizer and stuff.
They could also turn it into Vodka but then the Slavs would have another temper tantrum.
Removed by mod
I mean I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you read the article, or even just the context OP posted just below the headline, you may find something interesting like:
Most of the €200m will be used to buy excess stock, with the alcohol sold for use in items such as hand sanitiser, cleaning products and perfume.
that would make the use of the word destroying on the title a little clickbaity wouldn’t it? reading the article should be to find additional details, not contradictions
It’s no longer wine. The wine is destroyed. They do not plan to breach the laws of physics, lol. It’s clickbaity but not crazy inaccurate.
First time in the Internet, huh? Well welcome to the party.
The grapes of wrath aren’t usually so literal.
They very much were. The book is about people moving to harvest grapes in California
I mean, fair enough, and I’ve only seen the film adaptation, but I would expect literal grapes of wrath to ferment into Klingon bloodwine, and I don’t recall that being a plot point.
So that means the demand for wine destroyers increased? Where can I apply?
I’d do it for them for half that!
I volunteer as tribute to take a bite of of this deplorable situation
Such a shame for the wine that so much must be spent to destroy it.
Why dont they turn it into vinegar?
If you’re thinking of industrial vinegar or cheap white supermarket vinegar then because wine isn’t a good feedstock for that, we have much more efficient processes nowadays. If you’re thinking of high-grade luxury vinegars then because the wine is comparably shit. Also, already wine, not must.
They probably do. The article mentions some nonfood products that the destroyed wine can be sold as, but I don’t think there’s much lazier things to do than let it become vinegar.
Businesses should be forced to donate unsold food products
I’m not sure I’d consider alcohol a “food product”
Although I 110% agree with your comment.
Tell that to Germany
Hey Germany, you might have a slightly unhealthy relationship with alcohol.
~ A random French
Now what?
You know what would drive demand up ? Cheap wine.
The world already has Two Buck Chuck. How much cheaper do you want?
To be fair, I can get a bottle of D.O.C.G. Prosecco from Costco for $7, and most people consider it to be fairly good prosecco
So all I have to do to get millions of euros from the government is produce a bunch of shit that nobody wants?
That’s how the whole economy works, financed straight off the money printer at the top. Launder a percentage for yourself and burn the rest on a bonfire.
Maybe they should stop making so much if they are going to destroy it.
Y’know, if you’re going to spend the money anyways, just subsidize the sellers for the season and let them cut costs to the point that demand tips up. That way they’ll make some money themselves and learn for the next season where the price point is.
All paying to destroy it in order to keep prices up does is… keep it expensive above what the market will bear and cost the taxpayers while making them thirsty and sad
cut costs to the point that demand tips up
Price can be a factor in determining what to drink, obviously, but to compare these different products as though they’re interchangeable would be a mistake. There’s no price point at which a Bordeaux becomes a gose, so you have to account for not just the cost in dollars but the cost inasmuch as the consumer would be subbing something they don’t want for something they do. How much cheaper would wine have to be to induce someone who wants a beer to drink it? Personally, if there’s only red wine around I’ll just go to bed sober at any price.
I’d love to know how much more demand they could have created by spending that money giving away the wine at a big event where a single sommelier teaches wine appreciation to the masses. Create future customers instead of trying to manipulate markets, I say. Especially when you’re selling something addictive.
Aaaand another example of a whole industry destroyed by ignorance, anachronisms and greed. Good. What’s next? Electric cars? Furniture?
Ads please
