France says it is ‘determined’ to rescue the wine industry from a crisis, but could its plan backfire?
France has turned to the European Union for help after announcing additional funds to help rescue its "deteriorating" wine industry.
Earlier this week, the French Agriculture Ministry confirmed it has allocated €130 million to finance a new, permanent vine-pulling plan to “rebalance supply” and “restore the viability” of struggling farms in the most vulnerable regions.
This process involves severing and lifting the vines and their roots from the soil, usually using specialised equipment like a deep plough, and can cost around €1,000 per hectare.
Minister Annie Genevard has also asked the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Chrisophe Hansen, to finance the crisis distillation of non-marketable overstocks. This is where excess supply is turned into alcohol used for industrial purposes rather than consumption.
What’s behind France’s vineyard crisis?
Genevard says the country, which is one of the world’s biggest winemakers and home to 11 per cent ofglobal vineyards, has been “consistently” facing a crisis for several years.
In a statement released on 24 November, she pointed the blame towards a trifecta of problems, including “major geopolitical tensions”.
It comes after Donald Trumpthreatened to impose a 200 per cent tariff on European alcohol earlier this year, a move which was quickly rescinded. However, a 15 per cent tariff on exports to the US, a crucial market for the French wine industry, was announced several months later.
Experts fear the tariffs, combined with currency exchange rates, could slash annual French wine and spirit sales revenues by around €1 billion.
A continued decline in wine consumption, particularly red wines, has also contributed to France’s vineyard crisis. Last year, global consumption of wine fell to its lowest level in more than 60 years, while multiple surveys have pointed to Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2021) turning their back on alcohol altogether.
To top it all off, Genevard argued the sector’s suffering has been compounded byclimate change, which has “repeatedly impacted harvests” for several years.
“This significant new financial effort, despite a particularly difficult budgetary context and subject to the adoption of the finance bill, demonstrates the government’s determination to save our wine industry in the long term and allow it to bounce back,” the Minister says.
“This is not yet another emergency plan to correct a structural imbalance, it is an investment in our wine sector and to farmers in these production areas.”
What is uprooting?
The idea of pulling up vineyards is nothing new. It is believed to have originated in the first century when the Roman Emperor Domitian ordered the uprooting of 50 per cent of the grapes in Gaul (an ancient region of Western Europe that roughly corresponds to modern-day France) in fear that they posed a competition to Roman wines.
Since then, subsidies for vine pulling have been introduced several times, and it is now considered a more economic measure compared to distilling or storing surplus.
“Today’s issues are an overproduction of wine and a large decrease in consumption, particularly with red wines, mostly in the entry-level sector,” Pierre Metz, who is a partner in the Domaine Alain Chabanon vineyard in Terrasse du Larzac, Southern France, tells Euronews Green.
“Younger consumers tend to consume less wine which pushes the sellers to reduce prices, which in turn pushes down prices at the producers’ level.”
Metz explains that producers will now only receive around €0.80 for a litre of “generic” Bordeaux wine.
“The solution proposed by the producer lobby groups is to reduce production,” he adds.
“An unproductive vineyard still costs money to maintain to avoid disease from spreading, as there are actually fines to be paid if you don’t maintain your vineyard.”
There are two different ways of pulling vines: permanently or temporarily. The latter has the benefit of allowing vineyard owners to replant with heat-resistant varieties, allowing them to adapt to rising temperatures, but this still reduces production for a couple of years.
The risk of wildfires
Uprooting vineyards permanently comes with its own set of risks, including disturbance to wildlife and hindering wildfire prevention.
Europe faces more wildfires than ever, as climate change-fuelled droughts and rising temperatures make many regions across the continent more vulnerable. According to the European Commission, the area at risk of wildfires in France alone is expected to grow by 17 per cent by 2040.
However, properly maintained vineyards could be part of the solution, as research shows that vine plots can act as “firebreaks” by creating gaps in fuel and slowing the spread of flames.
“Studies in fire-prone areas have shown that wildfires often stop at the edge of well-kept vineyards, provided the space between rows is not overgrown with flammable vegetation,” the EU’s department for agriculture and development adds.
Metz explains that the risk of wildfires can be mitigated by planting hedges, ploughing away wild growth of land and keeping up with general maintenance. However, this would incur high costs, which vineyards choosing to uproot their vines may not be able to afford.
Uprooted vines can also make way for farmers to grow crops such as vegetables and cereals, but most choose to leave the land bare, as this again requires upfront costs.
How is climate change impacting the wine industry?
“Climate change is a daily subject for vineyard owners,” says Metz, pointing to the “multiplication” of hot periods that is being fuelled by global warming.
This summer, multiple parts of France were placed onhigh heat alert, as temperatures rose to 43℃ in parts of Charente and Aude. The scorching temperatures were identified as a key driver in a vast wildfire that burned through 160 square kilometres in Aude.
“This succession of heatwaves also creates a water issue as there is less rainfall and the groundwater reserves are lower each year,” Metz adds. “Some of the large production areas can only survive with irrigation, which becomes more and more costly with the lack of water.”
In June, the European Drought Agency classified a third of Europe as being in drought conditions, with 10 per cent of Europe in a state of crisis. In France, more than 30,00 commune inhabitants had their water supplies disrupted.
Unlike mass producers, Metz chooses not to irrigate his vines or use fertiliser, which he says forces the plant to “use its survival instinct” and “pushes to the roots to look for groundwater.”
He argues that good winemakers don’t need protection and should be capable of adapting to the changing environment.
“The real help would be to push for an increase in quality by reducing the yield per hectare,” Hetz adds, arguing that uprooting vines will be like a “drop of water on a hot stone for most producers”.
