Unione Italiana Vini has proposed a one year halt to authorizations for planting new vineyards

We are in a period, on the market and socially, in which wine consumption is in a structural decline while all the analyses are indicating that we need to produce less, on the whole, and work more on value. There are, instead those investing in planting vineyards in territories that produce products at a low economic value, and little remuneration. Therefore, for example in France, but also other countries, a massive campaign of uprooting vineyards is underway. At this time, when things are changing and it is difficult to plan in the medium-long term, like those investing in agriculture in general, and specifically in vineyards, perhaps it is time to stop and reflect on the rules of the game. Unione Italiana Vini - UIV, at the National Council held recently at the Rocca Agricultural Company, in Puglia, voted on the proposal “a one year stop to granting new authorizations for planting allowing 1% expansion of the Italian vineyard (about 6.500 hectares)”, as the EU regulation on the matter requires.
“UIV”, the president, Lamberto Frescobaldi said, “believes this transitional measure aimed at containing the viticultural potential is useful, provided that a reform on it will be launched at the same time as well as on the quantities of the yields provided in the specifications, and for common wines. The market context requires a sense of responsibility as well as revision policies. Italy is currently the only large producing country in the world registering growth in vineyards in spite of an almost 10% drop in demand volumes at the global level over the last 5 years”.
“A one-year stop to planting authorizations would allow us the technical time to be able to start a moment of discussion and review of the system together with all the players involved”, Paolo Castelletti, General Secretary of UIV, emphasized, “starting from introducing new priority criteria to enhance the hills and mountains and wine producing areas that perform on the market. At the same time, it would give us the opportunity to clarify the data. Today, we know how much is allocated, but not how much is actually planted, especially concerning re-plantings. We cannot just passively wait for a reform from the authorities to our sector. Starting with the companies and the protection consortiums, the territories must intervene rationally on these issues, and on a regional reorganization of the denominations. It is time to bring wine back to planet earth, if we want to win the challenge of competitiveness and guarantee fair compensation to winemakers”, he concluded.
According to the UIV Observatory estimates , by the end of the wine-growing campaign (next July 31st), the level of stocks will be around 42-44 million hectoliters of wine and must, that is, the equivalent of approximately an entire grape harvest.