Friday, 2 February, 2024
Wine Spectator, Suzanne Mustacich
Struggling Bordeaux winegrowers joined protests by thousands of farmers across France last week. Demonstrators blocked highways with tractors and hay, disrupted traffic on the busy motorway that rings Bordeaux city, and dumped manure and lit a bonfire downtown in front of the headquarters for the regional government, the préfecture de la Gironde.
Guillaume Grandeau, general secretary of the young farmers union Jeunes Agriculteurs and a winegrower in Langon, expressed the vignerons’ frustration. “On the purchase price of all our products, we are below our production prices. Already we don't make a living from our profession, and in addition we have permanent increases in costs, with regulations [more strict than] our European colleagues.”
That echoes the complaints heard across the country by France's main farmers' union, the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d’Exploitants Agricoles, or FNSEA. Members say they cannot afford taxes on tractor fuel, the cost of electricity and various government fees. They feel choked by French and European Union regulations and swamped in paperwork. What sparked the latest demonstration is a French government proposal to get rid of the current tax break on agricultural diesel fuel.
Many young growers of grapes for affordable wines wonder if there is a future for their profession.
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