Wine brewery in need: Germany's answer for the crisis wanted!

Wine brewery in need: Germany's answer for the crisis wanted!

The wine industry in Europe is currently facing considerable challenges. In the middle of a dramatic decline in wine consumption and increasing inventory, winemakers and producers in different countries see themselves confronted with an oversupply that presses market prices. According to a current analysis, wine consumption in Europe has drastically decreased in the current financial year. Germany is particularly affected with a decline of 22 percent and Portugal with 34 percent. France and Spain also have significant losses of 15 or 10 percent. These developments have led to a tense liquidity situation in the industry, which not only burden market participants in Germany, but also in other wine -permeable countries such as Italy.

Christine Schneider, MEP from the Palatinate, is fighting for support for the wine industry in Brussels. It calls for the introduction of an attachment freezer and measures to achieve new layers of consumer and to create a cultural landscape program. These demands are particularly relevant because the wine market is not only affected by pandemic, but also by inflationary developments and the increased prices for food and drinks. In order to meet the challenges, the EU Commission plans to establish a High Level Group Wine, which is intended to address the topics of overproduction and decommissioning vineyards and for which a variety of suggestions are to be developed.

reactions from politics

In particular, Daniela Schmitt, Minister of Wine and Economic Affairs of Rhineland-Palatinate, is critical of Schneider's suggestions such as interest-free loans. Schmitt emphasizes that the current liquidity bottlenecks are not the main problem of the winemakers. Instead, it is behind increased support for wine advertising both in Germany and internationally. In this context, the minister has increased the financial means for advertising measures to improve the visibility of the local wines.

Last year, an expert commission was also set up, which is to submit a report on the situation in the industry in October 2024. This commission will develop suggestions that should help the German wine industry to assert itself in the international market.

EU-wide support measures

At the EU level, measures were taken to support the most affected wines. The Commission has released the distillation of wine, especially for those producers who suffer from strong price pressure. The program enables alcoholic products to distill, the use of which is limited to other purposes than food. This step was necessary in view of an increase in the inventory and a simultaneous decrease in market prices, which has affected the income situation of many winemakers enormously.

In the meantime, wine production in the EU remains stable for 2023 compared to the previous year, and it is expected that the challenges by overproduction will continue in special regions. This applies in particular to red and rose wines from participating countries and is exacerbated by increasing the inventory.

The users of wine in Europe should also consider the influence of tariffs in the United States, which could also influence the competitive environment in their future purchase decisions. Schneider and her colleagues are committed to ensuring that the EU develops common strategies in order to cushion these challenges.