French govt dedicates $216 mn to protect winemakers amidst losses

Wine is bottled poetry the French say, it seems that the modern world has less space for accommodating this form of poetry as France is faced with a reduced demand for wine post covid-19 amidst rising cost of living. 

The French government has dedicated 216 million dollars for the disposal of excess wine that the breweries are faced with due to the losses they have been facing. The government is considering options such as using the product for perfumes and cleaning accessories. Vineyard owners are being encouraged to diversify their range into other crops such as olives. 

“We have an underlying issue of, ‘How do we better engage with the consumer and make wine more relevant, make wine a relevant choice for consumers that have a lot of options?’” said Stephen Rannekleiv, the global sector strategist for beverages at Rabobank, a Dutch financial firm specialising in agribusiness as quoted by the Washington Post. 

“I am not vaguely at all surprised that France is looking to destroy surplus and prop up prices by limiting quantity, because this is something that they’ve actually been struggling with since the 19th century, wine overproduction,” Elizabeth Carter, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire as quoted by the Washington Post.