Jean-Marie Fabre calls for caution. The day after the publication of figures from the ministry’s statistics service, Agreste, showing French wine production “at the average level” for 2023, the president of the Independent Winegrowers of France wanted to provide some perspective.
“I think we are in a situation of sub-sales,” he insisted this morning at the BFM Business microphone. Surely there will be an adaptation of certain products and there will be, above all, a large export market that is the one that aspires the most and that must be the salvation of the French oenologist: it is one of the main economic sectors of this country”.
The representative of the Independent Winegrowers of France thus believes that the French wine industry is still paying the consequences of the Covid years and more recently of the long-lasting inflation that is hitting the world economy. “There are winegrowers and winegrowers who still have volumes in stock because the market is down in our country and the conditions for large exports have been disrupted,” he analyzes.
A call to the State and insurers in the face of climate change
While the drastic drop in French wine consumption over the past half-century is often highlighted, Jean-Marie Fabre believes it is offset by product growth drivers internationally. “In the 1960s, we were on a food wine, whereas today we are on a pleasure wine,” he explains. The product of wine is always separated in spirit, consumption and affection. Wine is synonymous with an emancipated society”.
For Jean-Marie Fabre, the drop in consumption in France is not reflected in exports.
Wine production forecasts of around 45 million hectoliters are still pending the final consequences of mildew attacks in the Bordeaux and South-West vineyards. This disease, which results from the association in spring of high temperatures and storms accompanied by heavy rains, is symptomatic of the climatic disturbance that the sector “takes all its strength” according to Jean-Marie Fabre.
“Our ability to adapt is limited, laments the president of the Independent Winegrowers of France. We must work on R&D and, above all, ask the government to support us by investing in upstream tools.”
Above all, the representative of the independent actors of the sector asks the insurers for actions so that their “insurance system is as efficient as possible” in the face of this “additional problem”. “Insurers are asked to support the treatment of these diseases that are a direct consequence of climate change.”
Source: BFM TV
