While an emergency fund of 20 million euros is already planned in the 2024 budget, the Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau indicated this Thursday that he was working on additional aid for wine growers in difficulty. In particular, a measure to temporarily uproot the vines from 2024 and the possible addition of the pre-existing fund are being studied.
To respond to “requests for temporary, emergency aid, in terms of cash flow”, the minister mentioned in an interview with France Bleu Hérault radio the fund of 20 million euros already planned in the budget. “It will undoubtedly need to be expanded,” said the manager, who is due to visit the specialized Sitevi trade fair in Montpellier during the day. “We will align things according to needs,” also declared Marc Fesneau, referring to up to 60 million euros. This fund will be able to contain the “blank year” measure requested by the profession, namely the transformation of bank loan annuities for the year 2024 into loans of six to eight years with the payment of interest by the State, said the minister. He also mentioned a “deferred grubbing-up” measure from 2024 which “allows the vines to be temporarily uprooted” to replant “as soon as the market has stabilized”.
To do this, the government will have to ask permission from Brussels. “In this context he will request a working meeting with the (European) Commission and professionals so that the tools can be operational in this sense,” his office specified. Between a succession of climatic hazards over the last three years, the spread of mildew in certain vineyards this year, rising costs and the continued decline in wine consumption, some winegrowers are currently facing significant difficulties, cash flow in particular. Several measures have already been put in place, starting with an envelope of 200 million euros for “crisis distillation”, intended to destroy three million hectoliters of surplus.
The State also plans to devote 30 million euros, or even 38 million if necessary, to a sanitary vine grubbing plan in Bordeaux.