The Telegraph newspaper has reported that, in a striking move against what they see as unfair competition, around 500 French wine makers from Narbonne and Perpignan stopped lorries importing Spanish wines at the border town of Boulou.
They emptied thousands of gallons of rosé and smashed 10,000 bottles of Spanish sparkling wine on the roads. The protest was against the low prices of foreign wines, which they believe undercuts their own products. Frédéric Rouanet, president of a wine growers’ union, announced this as the beginning of an ‘economic war’ against cheap imports.
The situation has been described by the wine makers as the worst wine crisis in roughly two decades and they hold the government responsible for a drop in wine consumption. They demand fair pricing for their wines and compensation from the government.
Related to this is data from the American Association Wine Economists that shows bulk wine exports by country. Spain is the largest exporter of bulk wine by far and also at the lowest cost per litre. France also export a considerable amount of bulk wine but at about x3 the price per litre.
