Confagricoltura: “extraordinary EU funds are needed in order to raise agriculture and wine”

“The European Commission must take responsibility for the economic consequences on the agricultural sector caused by the containment measures for the third wave of the pandemic. It is necessary to mobilize extraordinary funds at European level”. This was said by the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti, who points out that for some productions – as in the case of wine – the market situation is even worse than last year. In the latest report on foreign trade from January-November 2020, the Commission found that wine exports were penalized by health emergency, with a decrease in sales in the order of 1.3 billion euros over the same period in 2019. The difficulties of the sector in Italy are highlighted by data of the Ministry of Agriculture, which indicate wine stocks for 61 million hectoliters, with an increase of 3.6% in 2020, at the end of last January. Similar situations, according to Confagricoltura, are also recorded in other large wine-producing member states: in Spain, for example, stocks at the end of January stood at more than 82 million hectoliters. “In this scenario, it is essential to propose again this year the distillation measures, but with an adequate compensation for producers” – urges the president of Confagricoltura.
“The Spanish Minister – continues Giansanti – has announced the request for an extraordinary financial intervention on the Union budget, on the occasion of the Agriculture Council scheduled for March 22 and 23. We are sure that Italy will support it, to give more strength and incisiveness to the request” – concludes Giansanti. Confagricoltura recalls that, according to the latest Ismea data, due to limitations of the Horeca channel, in the first ten months of 2020 exports decreased by 3.4% over the same period of 2019, with a loss of 5.11 billion euros and prices register a contraction of 7.5%.