Confagricoltura Piemonte wine market must intervene before there is an emergency

" Should new closures occur, but even if only with the maintenance of the current catering block in the evening and with the quotas already in place, there will inevitably be a drastic drop in demand from the entire Horeca channel, with very heavy damage ". Enrico Allasia, president of Confagricoltura Piemonte, expresses the concern of winegrowers for the upcoming period. " The Christmas and New Year holidays - continues Allasia - traditionally represent an opportunity for significant consumption of quality wines: lunches and dinners in company are an opportunity to drink, in moderation, important wines that are not consumed every day" .

The closures of the German market - stresses Confagricoltura Piemonte - are of great concern to winemakers, as Germany is one of our most important export markets, especially for Asti spumante and Moscato d'Asti .

The help that should come from the government with the implementation measures of the Relaunch Decree represent "a drop in the bucket" for Confagricoltura.

The decree on the private storage of quality wines, as proposed by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies , which will be examined by the State Regions Conference on Thursday 5 November will certainly not contribute to solving the problem.

The financial endowment of the measure, although significant, is totally insufficient to achieve the purpose. According to the director of Confagricoltura Piemonte Ercole Zuccaro, the quantity of wine that can be subject to private storage in six months will not reach 900,000 hectoliters , compared to a national production that exceeds 46 million hectoliters .

In this way, less than 2% of national production can be temporarily removed from the market: for Piedmont this would mean being able to store less than 50,000 hectoliters of wine in six months out of a total production of over 2.6 million hectoliters.

" To implement an intervention that has a positive impact, at least 100 million euros would be needed - declares Luca Brondelli di Brondello, member of the national council of Confagricoltura - otherwise there is a risk of committing important resources in any case without obtaining any tangible results. We hope that the government understands the situation and find the additional resources to give meaning to the measure ".

Confagricoltura Piemonte, which illustrated its position to the regional councilor for agriculture Marco Protopapa in view of the State Regions Conference next Thursday, also asks that a discussion be opened between the supply chain and the institutions to plan, already at the beginning of the next year, a policy of containment of the offer , if necessary also by activating a new distillation of the productions, to allow to adequately manage a very precarious commercial balance.