Red whine: Moaning French winemakers empty a Spanish tanker full of plonk all over the road in protest over imports
- French producers are furious that their rivals are exporting cut-price wine
- Four tankers were emptied, with 70,000 litres of wine wasted, yesterday
- Dramatic scenes were pictured on motorway less than ten miles from Spain
- Figures show that France is now the biggest buyer of Spanish wine
Flicking
open a tap on a Spanish lorry, a French winemaker lets red wine gush
onto a motorway as the trade war between producers in the two countries
intensifies.
French
producers are furious that their traditional rivals in Spain – and also
Italy – are exporting hundreds of millions of litres of cut-price wine
that threaten their livelihoods.
Dozens took to the roads yesterday, stopping Spanish tankers and then emptying their wine on to the roads.
A French winemaker lets Spanish red
wine gush onto a motorway as the trade war between producers in the two
countries intensifies
This
photograph was taken on a motorway at Le Boulou, close to the
Mediterranean town of Perpignan and less than ten miles from Spain.
Frederic
Rouanet, president of the wine producers in the south-west Aude
department, confirmed that four tankers were emptied, with 70,000 litres
of wine wasted.
His
fellow protesters scrawled graffiti on the side of the Spanish trucks,
with slogans including ‘wine not compliant’ – they believe the Spanish
wine is sub-standard and not produced in accordance with European
regulations.
Mr Rouanet said: ‘We’ve been checking the wine coming in for a month, but nobody cares. Today we got tough.’
The
protest comes after industry figures showed that France is now the
biggest buyer of Spanish wine – purchasing 580million litres in 2014, a
40 per cent rise on 2013.
France
has also lost its status as the world’s biggest wine producer. Last
year Italy produced 4,900million litres compared with 4,700million
litres in France.
This photograph was taken on a
motorway at Le Boulou, close to the Mediterranean town of Perpignan and
less than ten miles from Spain
Frederic Rouanet, president of the
wine producers in the south-west Aude department, confirmed that four
tankers were emptied, with 70,000 litres of wine wasted
And
French wine is more expensive. France sells its wine at a minimum £3.90
a litre abroad, compared with £1.95 for Italian wine and 91p for
Spanish wine.
French
police said there were ‘no immediate arrests’ associated with
yesterday’s action, but the incidents were being investigated.
But
Mr Rouanet said the Spanish wine was sub-standard: ‘If a French
vineyard produced wine using the Spanish regulations, he quite simply
couldn’t sell it.
‘I
want Europe to work, but with the same laws for everyone,’ said Mr
Rouanet, adding that 28,000 trucks filled with wine had arrived in
France from Spain in 2015.
The protest comes after industry
figures showed that France is now the biggest buyer of Spanish wine –
purchasing 580million litres in 2014, a 40 per cent rise on 2013
French police said there were ‘no
immediate arrests’ associated with yesterday’s action, but the incidents
were being investigated
Despite
Spain’s success as an exporter, its profits are in fact falling – not
just because of low prices, but because it sells ‘in bulk’, which means
un-bottled.
This
has led to countries like France buying wine in bulk in Spain, and then
bottling and labelling it themselves as their own, with an EU
denomination saying the drink is ‘of Spanish origin’.
It
is often more economic for France to export wine in bulk from Spain and
then label it, rather than growing the grapes and making the wine
themselves.
The French got through an average of 100 litres of wine per person in 1960, but the figure was only 42 litres in 2015.
France has also lost its status as the
world’s biggest wine producer. Last year Italy produced 4,900million
litres compared with 4,700million litres in France
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario