Spanish wine prices out of step with EU
recent times as a result of the summer heat wave, most producing
countries have increased the basic price for wine to compensate for
lower volumes. But not Spain - leaving producers there with a
serious deficit compared to their counterparts elsewhere in the EU.
The 2003 wine harvest in the EU is likely to be the lowest in 10 years, with the summer heat wave having a devastating effect on vineyards in most of the major producing countries.
But while most countries have increased the price of wine as a result of the reduced supplies, Spanish prices have remained unchanged, and the differential with the rest of the European Union is now becoming alarming, according to COAG, the Spanish farmers' and growers' organisation.
COAG cited the last EU estimates regarding wine production for 2003, which suggest that the total output this year will be around 155 million hectolitres, some 10 per cent less than the average over the last five vintages (172 million hl).
With some countries even facing the possibility of supplies running out during the course of the next year, most have been quick to increase the minimum price of their wines to offset potential shortfalls, but this has not been the case in Spain, according to COAG.
Red wine prices in Spain are currently €2.75 per hectograde, according to COAG, some 64 per cent below the basic price in France (€4.5/hectograde) and 37 per cent below the level in Italy (€3.75/hectograde).
The situation is similar for white wine: Spanish prices (€2.15/hectograde) are some 47 per cent lower than those in Italy (€3/hectograde).
Manuel Sanchez Brunete, COAG's wine sector representative, said that there was absolutely no justification whatsoever for such "alarming differences in a single market for a commodity product such as table wine", adding that many of Spain's wine makers had serious structural problems when it came to putting their wines on the market, and that this was perhaps one of the main reasons for the price differential.
