Winegrowers from Bordeaux have joined the widespread farmers demo across France, blocking roads and disrupting traffic on the busy motorway around the city of Bordeaux city, to protest at rising costs and demanding paperwork. The demos, which include dumping manure and lighting a bonfire in front of the headquarters for the regional government, the préfecture de la Gironde, were sparked by the French government’s plans to get rid of a tax break on agricultural diesel fuel, with farmers saying that they cannot afford to pay taxes on tractor fuel. They also argue that the cost of electricity and various government fees are too big a burden, and complain about being “swamped” in regulations and paperwork. Jean-Samuel Eynard, president of the FNSEA in Gironde and a winegrower in Côtes de Bourg told Wine Spectator that “people are desperate. It has never been this bad.” The president of the Young Farmers of Gironde, Vincent Bougès, who is a winegrower in St.-Sauveur de Médoc, added that certain costs were “no longer sustainable” and that winegrowers want their products “to be valued [and] to sell at the right price.” In addition to the growing costs, winegrowers are calling for a minimum price for bulk wine to be set by Bordeaux wine trade, and that the fees paid by smaller growers to the Bordeaux Wine Council should be lowered. As well as blocking and filtering traffic on roundabouts and main road, bonfires have also been lit outside the gates of bottling facilities in the Sough of France,
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
