Lifting of the filter barrier for winegrowers who attack Spanish wine on the border

On Thursday, hundreds of French winegrowers maintained a filter barrier on the A9 motorway, on the Franco-Spanish border, at the Boulou tollbooth (Pyrénées-Orientales), destroying in particular the load of two trucks transporting wine from Spain. . Coming from several departments in this region of southwestern France, including Aude, Hérault and Pyrénées-Orientales, they burned tires on the tracks and “controlled” heavy vehicles arriving from Spain, in search of imports of Spanish wine.

After throwing boxes of tomatoes from a truck onto the asphalt and setting them on fire, they emptied the loads of wine from two other vehicles. They then left the place, indicated the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales, which had 380 protesters at the site.

“An explosive cocktail” of unfavorable factors

A few hours earlier, between 350 protesters, according to the police, and 400, according to the winegrowers, who arrived in 200 vehicles, had gathered in Narbonne (Aude), before heading south to join others in Perpignan (Pyrenees). Eastern), then head towards the border. According to the president of the Pyrénées-Orientales winegrowers’ union, David Drilles, “this is a revolt of the regional basin that affects the entire region and even Paca”, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region (southeast).

For his part, the president of the Aude winegrowers’ union, Frédéric Rouanet, has been denouncing for weeks “an explosive cocktail” of unfavorable factors: poor harvests due to bad weather conditions, rates that increase with inflation, wine prices that do not continue, especially since imports made by traders reduce them. In 2022, France imported more than six million hectoliters of wine, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), but some vintages, particularly reds and rosés, are experiencing a drop in sales.

On the night of October 4-5, the premises of a bottling and trading company in Aude were even set on fire and a protest against the import of foreign wine was sprayed with it. This fire, which caused no injuries, was claimed by the Wine Action Committee, a local emanation of the Regional Wine Action Committee (CRAV) that expresses, with force and for several decades, “the anger” of the world of Languedoc wine.