Advertise On EU-Digest

Annual Advertising Rates

9/10/05

The Beaufort Gazette: Bordeaux wine producers told to cut output

The Beaufort Gazette

Bordeaux wine producers told to cut output

Makers of Bordeaux wines have been told to reduce their output this year by an unprecedented amount because of overproduction and falling prices, the body that controls French winemaking said. In response to a growing surplus of French wine in a tough global market, France's Institut National des Appellations d'Origine instructed growers in most French wine-producing regions to reduce output for the 2005 grape harvest - but none by as much as Bordeaux. Winemakers' unions there had already suggested lowering output by 10 percent to cope with falling prices. But Bordeaux makers were told to reduce output by about 12 percent, the institute said in a statement. In the first quarter of 2005, exports of Bordeaux fell by 11.4 percent in volume and 17.9 percent in value. Bordeaux winemakers, unlike those in other regions, were slow to participate this year in a European Union-financed campaign that attempted to deal with surplus wine stocks. Wine makers were offered an EU-fixed price for wine sold to distillers, who in turn received a pledge from the EU to buy up the alcohol they produced.

No comments: