France’s wine industry is asking the government and the EU for help: at least 500 million euros

Divided and competing in the markets, the Italian and French wine industries, for better or for worse, often live similar dynamics. And just as most wineries in the Belpaese suffer from the effects of coronavirus control measures, especially the smaller ones that are not present in the large-scale distribution chain, the same happens beyond the Alps. So much so that, according to the newspaper “Le Figaro”, the chain, through the interprofession (the Comitè National des iterprofessions des Vins), has returned to ask the French government and the EU for support of 500 million euros, to cope with part of the losses of what promises to be a blacker year than ever for French wine, with the sector affected by import duties introduced by the U.S. before, the adverse effects on all world markets imposed by the emergency Covid 19 then. Also in France, according to the data, with the highest quality production penalized massively by the blockade of restaurants, bars and bistros, the domestic consumption of still wines, thanks to large-scale distribution and e-commerce, suffered less than sparkling wines and champagne. One of the most popular measures to tackle the crisis is emergency distillation, which the French organizations would like to see distilled at least 3 million hectolitres of wine, to be financed with a ceiling of around EUR 250 million.