The sector is at a crossroads and there is a need for renewal. Good the proposal of recovering unused funds, lowering the alcohol content and to the promotion in EU.
No to unconditional grubbings, yes to curbing yields, expanding the CMO Promotion measure within the EU, and the proposal to transfer unused funds to the following year’s ceiling.
This is, in a nutshell, the position of Unione italiana vini (Uiv) expressed today in the National Council ahead of the meeting – next October 14 in Brussels – of the High Level Group on Wine where the Ministry of Agriculture (Masaf) will be called to express Italy’s recommendations on future EU policies. “These are crucial months for the future of wine,” said UIV President Lamberto Frescobaldi , “which is why we appreciate the openness to listening of the EU Commission and Masaf, which convened the supply chain yesterday to discuss the challenges and changes in the sector to bring to Brussels. We are convinced,” he added.
– that an overhaul of the system is now more necessary than ever: we need to think about data and not from the gut, which is why we appreciate the proposals aimed at ensuring renewed matching with consumption trends. Similarly, we believe that depriving ourselves of an asset such as the vineyard-which is fundamental not only for businesses but for entire rural communities-is a short-sighted choice and one that is too conditioned by a moment that is certainly complicated “.
Today in the Council, Uiv expressed favorable positions in particular onlowering the alcohol content of wines, which will necessarily have to go through a structural change in the sector’s rules and winemaking practices that can reduce the minimum alcohol threshold, currently set at 8.5°. Other highlights that the association (which has surpassed the 800-member threshold) agrees with are the possibility of accessing unused funds from the previous year and the extension of promotion policies to the EU and no longer only to third markets, as well as greater simplification of the rules of the game. Dry no, finally, for the hypothesis of extending replanting from 3 to 8 years, which would generate serious difficulties in the management of wine-growing potential.
