Strasbourg, 07/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - New forecasts from EU agricultural organisations Copa and Cogeca show the 2016 EU wine harvest expected to be down on last years' levels.
Thierry Coste, who chairs the Copa-Cogeca wine working party, said in Brussels on Wednesday that new forecasts reveal this year's EU wine harvest will certainly be down on last years' level, mainly as a result of extreme weather conditions. The harvest in 2015 was particularly good. “The market situation is nevertheless more positive in Italy especially on export markets. In France, there has been a drop in consumption in the HORECA (hotels, restaurants and cafes) sector. Record exports have also been recorded in Spain, especially for bulk wine, but accompanied by the lowest prices per hectolitre. Prices could continue to fall mainly as a result of the rise in cheap imports”, Coste added.
Copa-Cogeca also discussed the latest developments in research and instruments to fight more efficiently against trunk diseases in vineyards. The Commission presented current research programmes focusing on grapevine diseases including a Horizon 2020 research programme (Winetwork). Possibilities for the commercial use of resistant and hybrid varieties was also looked at. Although these varieties are not commercially attractive at the moment, in view of global climate change and its consequences on crop resistance, they might be reconsidered in the not so distant future, say Copa-Cogeca in a press release. Lastly, there was an exchange of views with the grapevine nurseries sector, showing that rootstocks and scions mother plants production in nurseries, as well as grafting is led mainly by France, Italy and Spain, and somewhat less by Portugal and Hungary. About 373 million plants sold in the world in 2016 are from nurseries. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)