France ploughs €130m into uprooting vines

The French Government’s ministry of agriculture has announced a rescue plan for the country’s wine sector that will include a €130 million funding package to support vineyard uprooting.

France €130m into uprooting vines

This comes after winegrowers stormed the streets of southern French city Béziers, calling for urgent government and EU support, as the sector struggles with extreme weather conditions, soaring costs and falling sales.

The goal of the new support package, announced by France’s ministry of Agriculture on Monday (24 November), is to stabilise the wine market and support long-term solutions.

“The government is allocating €130 to fund a new, permanent vine-pulling plan requested by the wine industry,” a statement from the ministry said, in order to “rebalance the supply and restore the viability of struggling farms in the most vulnerable regions.”

Minister of agriculture, agri-food and food sovereignty of France, Annie Genevard, announced the package to sector stakeholders at the opening evening of the major trade fair, SITEVI, in Montpellier.

Responding to a ‘deteriorated situation’

France’s farm ministry lowered its projection for this year’s wine output to 36 million hectolitres in October, down from the 37.4 million forecast last month and 1% below last year’s harvest, citing a heatwave in August.

The revised forecast, based on the latest harvest results, was 16% below the five-year average.

Genevard also urged the European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen to “mobilise the European crisis reserve, particularly to finance the crisis distillation of non-marketable surpluses, primarily in cooperative cellars.”

The ministry said that the “national crisis exit plan” was a response to “a deteriorated situation, marked by the effects of climate change that have increasingly affected the harvest for several years, a continuous decline in wine consumption – particularly red wines – and major geopolitical tensions” impacting exports.

Extra funding

Additionally, the plan includes the extension of structural loans guaranteed at 70% by Bpifrance until 2026. The ministry confirmed these “will be subject to a revision of their criteria,” as many producers claim they cannot access them.

It also includes €10m allocated to “social charge relief”, after €5m was announced at the start of this month.

In the statement, Genevard added: “This new very significant financial effort, despite a particularly difficult budgetary context and subject to the adoption of a finance bill, demonstrates the Government’s determination to sustainably save our viticulture and enable it to bounce back.”

Investing in the future of wine

She clarified it was not “yet another emergency plan to correct a structural imbalance,” but “an investment to give a future” to the wine industry. Currently, the wine and spirits sector supports 600,000 jobs in France, and accounts for €32bn in turnover, half of which is exported.

The Béziers demonstration on Saturday 15 November organised by the Aude winegrowers union, highlighted the plight of French winegrowers. Damien Onorre, president of the union, told Le Monde: “For three years, we have suffered droughts and heat waves above 40°C. I have lost 50% of my production over this period.”

Speaking to France 24, winegrower Fabrien Mariscal expressed similar woes: “Since I started in 2016, we’ve had at least one climate related disaster every single year, sometimes two, three or even four. That’s led to significant drops in yield. Over the past two or three years, I’ve lost between 70% to 80% of my harvest because of extreme weather.”

Mounting anger

Producers also point to rising customs duties and shrinking sales as aggravating the crisis.

Fabien Castelbou, vice-president of the Occitanie winegrowers’ cooperative, told France 24: “There’s mounting anger, because wine growers just can’t make ends meet anymore. We can’t live off our work. With falling yields year-to-year, we’re not making any profit.”

Monday’s announcement is not the first time the French Government has paid winegrowers to rip up vines. In 2023, it announced a €160 million fund to help vignerons deal with oversupply of wine and has approved in principle the uprooting of vines.

Then, in 2024, the French Prime Minister announced a €230 million boost for winemakers, as the ministry of Agriculture floated the idea of grubbing-up of 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of vineyard.