The European Commission has released €40 million from its agricultural reserve to help French wine producers by funding a temporary crisis distillation scheme that will remove up to 1.2 million hectolitres of surplus red and rosé wine from the market.
The money is intended to ease market pressures in France’s wine sector, where prices have fallen and stocks have built up, the Commission announced on Wednesday.
France’s wine producers have faced pressure linked to changing consumer preferences, climate change impacts, geopolitical trade disruption and a drop in bulk wine prices, it added.
Production is 16% lower than long-term averages, but supply has still outstripped demand.
Under the emergency measure, €33 per hectolitre will be available to distil unsold wine stocks, with distillation meaning the wine is processed into alcohol rather than sold as wine.
The scheme is designed to reduce volumes on the market ahead of this year’s harvest.
How the support fits into wider EU measures
The Commission said the funding sits alongside its wider “wine package”, which includes measures on managing production potential and adapting to shifting consumer preferences.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said the support was agreed in close coordination with the French government and was intended to respond to “the collapse in prices and the saturation of stocks in France”, according to his statement.
