Pau Roca: sustainability, computerization and economic development are the OIV goals

More than 100 million hectoliters of wine have been exported for a value that has exceeded 30 billion euros, which therefore signifies that the international trade share on world production represents a success in the viniculture sector. Pau Roca is the new Director General of the OIV - International Vineyard and Wine Organization, and in his first speech to the wine sector, he reminded the participants that the organization's mission is to strengthen and maintain the balance between consumers and producers’ markets. Roca pointed out that for this reason, we must ensure that “regulations will never become a pretext to raise barriers or generate conflicts, rather, on the contrary, they will be at the service of consumers and producers' interests, in a balanced and shared value chain, and targeted to preserving pluralism as well as the greatest possible diversity”.
The role of new technologies and new forms of communication is also fundamental, Roca continued in his speech that “makes us move forward constantly accelerating. Neither the wine industry nor the organization itself can possibly witness these phenomena without becoming deeply involved with them, as well as then incorporating these innovations and these new tools. The diffusion of the use of these technologies will change the economy and legal relations radically. New forms of cryptography, the preservation and transmission of information, the verification of authority and the protection and diffusion of databases and metadata will change our environment significantly”.
The next five-year plan of the OIV has been established upon these core principles. It will necessarily have to respond to the challenges of the sector, and considering this context, 2019 will be the year of change in the next Strategic Plan of the Organization. The Plan, according to the vision of Pau Roca, will have to focus on various already identified priority guidelines. First of all, contributing to orientation efforts in order to guarantee the environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability of the wine sector. Then, being ready to adapt to the computerization of the sector and the related information systems as speedily as possible, while identifying all the processes that an evolution could affect. Additionally, also proposing a service to the Member States of the OIV so as to guarantee the economic development of production and trade, suggesting good regulatory and administrative practices. These then are the goals that should be achieved, according to the General Director of the OIV, by all Governments, involving delegations of prominent figures in the wine world participating in teams of expert groups at the next meetings, and actively contributing to sharing collective skills that are the foundation of the OIV.