The Chianti alarm. We are alone, without support policies 40% of wine Tuscany will go on sale

“We have been left alone. Despite the Government’s declarations, our companies have been trying to get through and over this unprecedented crisis, relying solely on their own strength. We agricultural entrepreneurs are used to challenges and sacrifices because every year our production yield depends on the climatic conditions, which can change in a few days and without warning, compromising our crops and the stability of the company. At a time like this, however, we did not expect there would have been such an abysmal distance between the problems companies face and the institutions”. This is the alarm the president of the Chianti Wine Consortium, Giovanni Busi, launched to the Consortium assembly, which met today in Florence, for the first time after the lockdown phase.
“There’s no more time”, explained Busi, “and we can’t go on anymore. If this situation remains the same, i.e., without any support, 40% of Tuscany will go on sale in a few months. Companies will close down, and it will become the largest asset boomerang ever seen before. No one excluded. Large companies and small, famous and not, will close. The entire region will lose out and there will be no possibility of a return”.
In this situation dominated by uncertainty, it is still not clear which fairs will actually resume. “We still don't know when we will be able to start our promotional activities again”, explained Busi “which are a fundamental section for exports, and up to now represented 70% of our market. It is very clear, though, that if the major events related to the wine world do not begin again in Europe and around the world, we risk seeing our sales compromised, which have already been severely affected when the on market, or Ho.Re.Ca. channel was closed a few months ago. It is now time”, concluded the president of the Chianti Wine Consortium, “to mobilize the entire Tuscan wine world and make our voices heard. At this stage, we cannot afford the luxury of staying tied to old feuds. The wine world represents a key element with which to revive the economy of the Region”.