Between yield cutting and promotion, the wine sector is working on measures to respond to the crisis

The first step, in line with what WineNews imagined in the past days, is the use of emergency distillation, but the answer that the wine sector will have to give to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 emergency, now global, certainly does not end here, and pending a common line of the supply chain table, we have collected the opinions of the main organizations - Uiv, Federvini, Fivi, Federdoc - between economic support, cut yields and other ideas. Already lined up by the director Uiv Paolo Castelletti, starting “from the classic measures of the CAP: not only promotion but also the consolidation of investments in the cellar. The green harvest would help not to generate stock, but there is the problem of the availability of the workforce. Yes to distillation, but on condition that yields are revised, for a reduction from 500 quintals per hectare to 300 quintals per hectare, which can be waived at 400 quintals, on generic wines, with a clear price division: 20-22 cents for generic wines, 40 cents for wines with the denomination. The economic measures are essential: extension to payments and liquidity on all.” Federvini does not yet have an official position, but general manager Ottavio Cagiano does: “We don’t need to block the new plants, the companies will regulate themselves, but we must not lose those resources. The question of yields is different, concerning which the wine supply chain will have to make important reasoning: we don’t know how long this situation will last, nor how the companies will come out of it.” A measure that, on the other hand, convinces president Fivi Matilde Poggi: “it can be a measure to be put in place, while for the blocks to the installations I believe that each producer should be able to decide for himself. Blocking them when the company has made investments and has outlets would be counterproductive. Acting on taxation to restart sales.” Finally, the analysis by Riccardo Ricci Curbastro, President of Federdoc, which starts from a need, “to have precise numbers and data to understand the extent of the emergency. I guess there are denominations that, after years of freezing, hailstorms, rains, have no intention of reducing yields. I don’t think it is necessary to block the systems, instead, it is important to intervene on the yields of generic wines”.