The president of the Alentejo Regional Wine Commission (CVRA), Francisco Mateus, acknowledged today that the unused wine stock is one of the sector’s problems, but said he would prefer that, if there is a brake, it should be on imports.
“I agree with the minister and with the identification of the problem, but I would prefer that, if there were to be a brake, it would be applied to imports”, said the leader of this wine commission, speaking to the Lusa agency.
Still regarding the interview with the Minister of Agriculture, José Manuel Fernandes, to the newspaper Público, Francisco Mateus presented new data on the issue of ‘stocks’ raised by the government official.
The Minister of Agriculture warned in the interview about the unused wine stock and argued that “there will have to be a brake” on support for new vineyard plantations.
The new ruler questioned whether financial resources are being given to plant vineyards to then be started or for the wine to be distilled, adding that, so far, 60 million euros have already been spent on distillation.
For the president of CVRA, José Manuel Fernandes “is making a realistic interpretation of the current context” and the identification of “’stock’ as the main problem”, but warned that “the core of the issue should not be limited to the vineyard”.
“To understand the ‘stock’ problem, it helps us that the analysis also considers the evolution of production and imports, on the one hand, and exports and sales in the national market, on the other”, he pointed out.
Using data from the Vine and Wine Institute (IVV), Francisco Mateus indicated that, on average over the last five years, compared to the previous five, the vineyard area decreased by around 10 thousand hectares and production increased by 52 million liters per year. year.
“We produce a greater quantity per hectare, with the effect of Vitis (Vineyard Reconversion and Restructuring Support Scheme) being visible, which helps the vineyards to have greater competitiveness and, it is true, also greater productivity, but we are talking about more 441 liters per hectare per year”, he said.
Imports, according to the official, “grew at an average rate of 83 million liters per year, which, added to the increase of 52 million liters in production, adds 135 million liters to availability”.
“In the last five years, export and national market sales resulted in over 35 million liters”, Francisco Mateus pointed out, on the other hand, noting that the national market data consider Nielsen statistics, which “do not cover the entire of sales, so the effective number will be higher.”
According to the president of CVRA, the difference between what is produced and what is exported and sold on the national market, which amounts to 17 million liters, “is easily absorbed by sales that are not covered by statistics and other uses , such as distillations and vinegar production”.
“The substantial increase in imports in recent years has brought the sector, on average, an additional 83 million liters per year, which in five years means an additional 400 million liters of wine,” he added.
As for Vitis, the person responsible considered that it is “an important tool for, for example, the sector to reconvert grape varieties, using those that are more adapted to climatic conditions”.
“But it can also be used to introduce advanced sustainable production systems, which is recommended, but which we are not yet doing in force in our country, which justifies starting a reorientation debate on the activities covered by the support from Vitis”, he concluded.
