A winegrower burns a bale of straw in the vineyards to protect them from frost on April 7, 2021 as the sun rises at the heart of the Vouvray vineyard in Touraine, France
A winegrower burns a bale of straw in the vineyards to protect them from frost on April 7, 2021 as the sun rises at the heart of the Vouvray vineyard in Touraine, France Copyright Guillaume Souvant/AFP

'Historic' bout of frost decimates French winemakers' harvest

By Euronews with AFP
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About "80 per cent to 90 per cent" of the harvest for Côtes du Rhône wine has been lost, according to professionals.

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French fruit growers and winemakers are warning that the majority of their harvest this year has been lost to this week's frost.

"No region has been spared: beets, rape, barley, vines fruit trees ... All the different kind of support must be activated urgently," the National Federation of Unions for Farmers (FNSEA) stressed.

April 6, 2021. Frederick Florin/AFP
Anti-frost candles burn to protect trees from frost in an orchard in Westhoffen, eastern France, on April 6, 2021April 6, 2021. Frederick Florin/AFP

"Exceptional situations call for exceptional measures," it added.

All through the week, farmers across France had tried to save their harvest from the frost by lighting fires and candles.

Guillaume Souvant/AFP
A winegrower burns a bale of straw in the vineyards to protect them from frost as the sun rises at the heart of the Vouvray vineyard in Touraine, France. April 7, 2021Guillaume Souvant/AFP

In the south-eastern départements of Drome and Ardeche, temperatures dropped to as low as -8°C during the nights this week. The mercury has thus fallen by 33°C over 10 days.

Local winemakers and fruit growers reported to the FNSEA that they had lost up about 90 per cent of their harvest.

Philippe Pellaton, President of the Inter-Rhone Association of winegrowers, has also warned that this year should see "the smallest harvest of the Côtes du Rhône in the last 40 years."

He estimates that about "80 per cent to 90 per cent" of the nearly 68,000 hectares making up this terroir have been lost to the frost.

"The winegrowers are devastated, downcast," he went on, highlighting the multiple strains they have had to contend with in recent years including Brexit, US tariffs and the COVID-19 pandemic which all put pressure on sales and exports.

Jeff Pachoud/AFP
A winegrower from the Daniel-Etienne Defaix wine estate lights anti-frost candles in their vineyard near Chablis, Burgundy, France. April 7, 2021Jeff Pachoud/AFP

Burgundy, which has 28,841 hectares of vines, fared no better.

"We have at least 50 per cent damage," Francois Labet, President of the Bureau interprofessionnel des vins de Bourgogne (BIVB), said.

The region's prestigious Chablis appellation is particularly hit with the damage estimated at about "80 to 90 per cent" by Frédéric Gueguen of the office of the Federation of Defense of the Chablis appellation. "I fear that there are some farms that will not recover."

Jeff Pachoud/AFP
Winegrowers from the Daniel-Etienne Defaix wine estate light anti-frost candles in their vineyard near Chablis, Burgundy. April 7, 2021Jeff Pachoud/AFP

The south of Burgundy has also recorded -8°C temperatures.

"It is historic because of the intensity of the frost and the extent of the areas affected: no one was spared in Saône-et-Loire. It is exceptional," Thomas Canonier, wine consultant at Vinipôle Sud-Bourgogne, highlighted.

Winemakers in the Bordeaux region — in the southwest — have also sounded the alarm.

According to the Bordeaux Wine Trade Council (CIVB), the frost has "hit hard" vast areas of the Bordeaux vineyards, with temperatures sometimes falling below -5°C and affecting all 65 appellations, which represent 111,000 hectares of vines, or about 15% of the French vineyard.

In the Dordogne, "not a single farmer has been spared" in the vineyards of Bergerac and Duras (about 12,000 hectares), which includes the famous Monbazillac, Eric Chadourne, President of the Federation of local wines, emphasised. "It's to varying degrees, it goes from 5 per cent to 100 per cent of the buds depending on the parcels," he added.

The President of the national association of apples and pears also warned that "peaches, nectarines, apricots will be rare on the shelves this year" because of the recent cold temperatures.

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Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie has said that the government is "fully mobilised to provide the necessary support" to farmers impacted by the exceptional bout of late frost.

The government has also said that €70 million from the country's €100 billion COVID-19 Recovery Plan would go to farmers so they can invest in equipment to protect their crops against climatic hazards.

Additional sources • Natalia Liubchenkova

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