DURING THE SECOND MEETING OF WINE ASSOCIATIONS, IN ROME, WINE COOPERATIVES OF THE THREE MAJOR "OLD WORLD" PRODUCERS - ITALY, FRANCE, SPAIN – AGREED THAT LOWER PRODUCTION AND LESS STOCK CONFIRM PRICE INCREASES

“World wide wine consumption being basically stable coupled with one of the lowest harvests’ in the last 20 years, as OIV has estimated, the wine stock estimates should confirm price increases”. This is the message from the second meeting, in Rome, of the wine cooperatives of the three most important European wine producing countries, Italy’s Alliance of agri-cooperatives, France’s Confédération des Coopératives Vinicoles de France and Spain’s Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de Espana - representing, respectively, 58%, 48% and 60% of their wine productions.

The main topic of discussion concerned the development of national stockpiles, to estimate the real availability of the product, which is quite important in the wine world considering that Italy, France and Spain alone account for more than 80% of European production, and over 50% of world production.
It is well known that the 2016 harvest opened with news of smaller stockpiles in Spanish wineries. In 2015, 267 hectoliters were available on the market, including stocks and musts, while this year, as the three organizations estimated, the figure is expected to fall to 262 million, signifying 5 million hectoliters less available (2.1% less year-on-year, which is much less than the annual variation of global production, 5.4%).
In addition to the subject of stock, the hypothesis of building a Community Observatory on the subject was discussed, to give a clearer and quicker point of view to the wine market, and to achieve even more cooperation among the wine cooperatives of the three countries, considering the forthcoming revision of the Common Agricultural Policy.

“The market situation is favorable, considering the high quality of production in 2016”, noted the three organizations. “We are obliged, as cooperators, to think in medium to long term to ensure the stability of our shareholders' profitability.
This is why we started the Italian, French and Spanish co-operation on the development of new market stabilization mechanisms to insert in the European Union reference discipline. These tools must be innovative and break with those used in the past. We want competitive viticulture that can ensure at all times proper functioning of the market to the benefit of the entire production chain”.