Wine, alarm over promotion, between “farm to fork” and “pressure from Health Directorate in Brussels

“The “Farm to fork” strategy and pressure from the Brussels Health Directorate General are conditioning the European Commission’s upcoming Agricultural Promotion policies”. This is noted, with concern, by the wine sector - Alleanza delle Cooperative italiane, Assoenologi, Cia-Agricotori Italiani, Confagricoltura, Copagri, Federdoc, Federvini and Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) - in a letter addressed to the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, and the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Stefano Patuanelli.
According to supply chain organizations, the risk, for the wine sector, is to accuse further discrimination in EU programs, as happened recently in the case of horizontal promotion actions. “It is our understanding”, states the letter, “that the working document for the next year could foresee a further penalization for products with Geographical Indication (PDO/PGI) and at the same time is considering the exclusion from promotional programs of some products that are particularly sensitive for Italian agri-food production, such as wine and meat. While we agree”, continues the text sent by the chain, “with the importance of promoting organic products in order to achieve sustainability goals, we believe it is essential to emphasize that organic farming is not the only agricultural practice suitable for the aforementioned purposes and that in the wine sector the GI policy contributes significantly to the objectives set by the farm-to-fork strategy”.
The supply chain’s attention is now turned to the next Common Organization of Agricultural Markets (CMO) Committee scheduled for June 15, when the Commission will be asked to adopt the next annual promotion program. In addition, when it comes to the reform of the promotion policy, the Italian wine representatives ask that “the Commission publish the proposal as soon as possible and clarify as soon as possible that no specific sector or product is discriminated against in the new reform - neither directly nor indirectly - through the provision of selection criteria that would prove arbitrary because they would penalize the excellence of Made in Italy”.