The harvest will, on average, two weeks ahead of time in France due to unpredictable weather, and if the quality will be at the appointment, the amount is expected to be much lower in particular due to the gel, which worries professionals.
“The harvest will be excessively early in all production areas, we will have roughly around 15 days ahead, even in the Champagne”, said to AFP Jerome Despey, chairman of the board, specialized Wines, FranceAgriMer and the general secretary of the FNSEA, the main farmers union French.
While in the Pyrénées-Orientales, the harvest began the end of July, with fifteen days in advance, the harvest will start Wednesday in Ramatuelle in the Var, and end-of-week in the Gard and the Vaucluse, an advance “unusual”, according to the professionals of the region.
To the smaller crop of the century
The disturbing remains, however, for Jerome Despey that it was “between 20 and 30% less to harvest compared to last year,” on his own farm “and everything seems to confirm that we will be the smallest crop recorded since the beginning of the century”.
This phenomenon is due to a combination of factors : the heat early in the spring, to which is added the gel, which has been significant in the south-west going up on the Loire river and the east side of the country, and a dry period during the summer in the south, which has accelerated the maturity.
“Qualitatively there is no concern because there is not a disease. One should have an exceptional year”, he says.
However, it remains “concerned about the difficult situation that will live on the producers with 30% and 80% of losses for those whose production has been frozen. There will be loss of revenue to the hectare, consistent, and even if the price of the wine should increase, this will not offset the loss of production”
Call to the aid of the ministry of Agriculture
The union rep is calling the minister of Agriculture, Stéphane Travert, “to ensure that measures of cash with rebates of taxes on the land not built on, supported social security contributions can be put in place” to “that can accompany some of which might be ‘impacted’ by this lower production potential, I think especially the younger people”.
The FNSEA has also asked the minister to receive the whole of the wine sector at the end of the month.
(with AFP)
