More than 500 growers protested last week in Régua against cuts in Port wine production. They accuse authorities imposing the cuts of failing to monitor the entry into Portugal of Spanish wine.
Every year the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) sets the limit on how much port can be produced. This is set in order to avoid an oversupply. IVDP has ruled that production must fall by 14,000 barrels this year, down from 104,000 in 2023. This represents a 13.4% cut. The reason is “too much wine” flooding the market. The upshot however will be hundreds of families severely out of pocket.
Meanwhile, overall sales of port wines dropped 7.1% in 2023 and now the category is dealing with a potential oversupply. Many still consider the 90,000-pipe production limit for 2024 to be too high.
Nonetheless, on 7th August, more than 500 port growers protested outside the IVDP building in the city of Régua, saying that too much imported wine was flooding the local market.
This cut is necessary to maintain the value of the port wines. The cuts don’t affect dry wine production. However, grapes for dry wines do not command the same price as port wine grapes even though the farming cost can be equivalent. Farming in the Douro Valley, which has more steep mountain vineyards than any other wine region in the world, is incredibly expensive. So the disquiet over imported wine is entirely fair … but the conflation of the two is dangerous.
It will not even be worth it for them to harvest the grapes, as they will have no one to sell them to, complain growers. The loss in financial terms to the Douro region could reach €26 million euros.
Image source: Rádio Douro Nacional – Lamego Facebook page, citing RTP/ Lusa
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