Piedmont, convert the Ocm Promotion funds not spent on wine storage and not only

The wine territories, as it is obvious, are in alarm and suffering from the Covid-19 emergency. And, despite the enormous difficulties brought about by the blockade of channels such as the horeca, the lack of liquidity and the need to continue the work in the vineyard and in the cellar, we are trying to think of solutions for a future that, in the immediate future, will be very hard. The Piedmont Wine Region, one of the most important in Italy and the world, is also doing this, with many ideas and measures under study.
This is explained to WineNews by Filippo Mobrici, president of Piemonte Land, which brings together all the Piedmontese wine Consortia.
“We are trying to react, and, in agreement with the agricultural and trade organizations, and with a Region willing to listen, we are thinking about various proposals. From green harvesting to an extraordinary crisis distillation, which, however, must be thought well, because not for all denominations can have the same value, to the reduction of yields, to the increase of the harvest reserve, or of the size of the vintage cut, today, where permitted, in a measure of 15%, perhaps to be increased”.
But there are also those who, like the Consorzio del Roero, led by Francesco Monchiero, also in the Piemonte Land, have launched the proposal to convert the Ocm funds for promotion on international markets that obviously will not be spent, and to use them to help the wineries to increase the storage capacity of the wine, through purchases or rents of equipment and space, also to avoid a race to sell off the wine, and therefore the destruction of value, as the harvest approaches, when there will be room in the cellar.
Some proposals, such as this one, already brought to the Region, which will have to knock on the door of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies which, on some, will have to wait for the European Union to give the go-ahead, others are under study.
“It’s an ongoing work in progress, we have to be ready, hope for the best, but also prepared for the worst in a situation like this”, underlines Mobrici, who adds: “we are doing everything together with the trade organizations, because now more than ever we have to think about measures that don’t leave anyone behind, since in situations like this the weakest links in the supply chain are the ones who suffer most. But more than anything else, we need to get rid of the old way of thinking, the old way of thinking must be overcome, there is no time: in 5 months, maybe even something sooner, we will be harvesting. And time passes quickly”.