Hundreds of liters of wine poured into the streets, shouting “Spanish wine will not enter France today.” This is the method of protest chosen by French wine producers who destroyed the highway on the Spanish border by emptying two trucks and dumping their contents across the border. The protest was triggered after the Transalpine government supported cheap alcoholic drinks from abroad. On the morning of October 19, 300-400 wine producers from different regions of Southern France gathered at the Spanish border to block vehicles loaded with red, white and sparkling wine coming from Spain.
Free wine and cava thrown in
According to media reports, France Bleu arrived on the scene at around 10 a.m. and producers “controlled” heavy vehicles coming across the border by burning tires. By noon they still hadn’t found the bottles, but they had dumped a truckload of tomatoes onto the asphalt before setting them on fire. A lot of salad was also destroyed in the afternoon. Eventually, they caught up with a truck carrying loose hundred and another truck carrying sparkling “cava”, a rival to Champagne. Protesters then poured the contents of the bottles onto the street. “Among foreign competition […]”We are asking the Minister of Agriculture to save us because of the regulations imposed on us and the historic drought that puts our harvest at risk this year,” Pierre Hylari, president of the Pyrenees Young Farmers Association, told France Bleu radio. Easterners.
Cheaper import
In 2022, the French market was filled with wine products from abroad, especially Spain and Morocco. More than 6.5 million hectoliters of wine entered France and were sold at prices well below those in the Alps. 65% of imports come from Spain, where their companies often ship the product in bulk, making table wine fall into the lowest price range. Iberian bottles sell for just under 1 euro per liter, while bottles produced in the south of France do not fall below the 3 euro per liter threshold.
Drought and inflation have an impact
For weeks, winemakers of the Pyrénées-Orientales have been blaming the government for an “explosive cocktail” of negative factors. First of all, there will be a disastrous harvest in 2023 due to drought. Added to this are the ever-increasing costs due to inflation, especially when the price of wine does not increase due to cheaper bottles or cans that come with imports. Representatives of winemaking companies are demanding tax exemptions, aid per hectare planted and bank loan support from the government. They then returned to Brussels and asked the European Commission to provide assistance in removing the grapes by allowing subsidies for the reconstruction of the vineyards. A new protest has already been announced for November 25. The struggle of French producers is reminiscent of the Sardinian shepherds who spilled thousands of liters of sheep’s milk on the asphalt in 2019 to protest against unfair forms of competition, earning “a few pennies” compared to the real market value. milk.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
