Tens of thousands of angry winemakers took to the streets across France on Wednesday demanding urgent government action to help haul the industry out of its worst crisis in more than a century.
The protests in Avignon, Macon, Angers, Nantes, Bordeaux, Blois and Tours marked the first time growers from all of France’s principal winemaking regions — except Champagne, which is still prospering — had demonstrated simultaneously, organisers said.
Bernard Layre, head of France’s Young Farmers’ union, said: ”We need a rescue plan for the wine industry because prices have fallen to unimaginable levels, consumption is dropping at home and abroad and thousands of winemakers are quite literally on the verge of bankruptcy.”
In Avignon about 7 000 winemakers, mainly from Provence and Languedoc, marched through the streets behind heavy farm machinery, including a grape-picking machine draped in black and bearing the slogans ”They want the death of winemaking” and ”Yes to moderation, No to prohibition”.
The industry is demanding state help ranging from a â,¬10 000 emergency payment for young winemakers to a fund aimed at encouraging older producers to take early retirement.
Growers also want money made available for those who wish to reorganise their businesses or move into other forms of agriculture.
France’s wine industry, which employs 300 000 people and is worth â,¬5,7-billion, has been hit by a crippling range of setbacks, including the strength of the euro against other currencies and sliding sales in the US because of anti-French sentiment there.
But abroad its main problem is the intense competition of wines from California, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and South Africa, which are often cheaper, more consistent, and above all easier for consumers to understand than France’s complex AOC system. French wine exports declined by about 5% last year and are set to fall again in 2004.
Wine consumption in France also fell by 10% last year, continuing a trend that has seen domestic sales slump by 50% in the past 40 years and reflecting a change in lifestyles and growing health concerns.
Winemakers are particularly angry at the centre-right government’s health campaigns and strict enforcement of drink-driving laws.
A recent health ministry campaign suggesting that wine could cause cancer was ”the straw that broke the camel’s back”, said Denis Verdier of the Confederation of French Winemaking Cooperatives.
”We are all in favour of moderation, but wine is now being portrayed as a poison. Why don’t they just ban it and have done with it?”
To make matter worse, the industry is expected to produce some 23% more wine this year than in 2003, helped by a favourable summer.
Many producers worry this will lead to substantial overproduction and yet more downward pressure on already depressed prices. – Guardian Unlimited Â