Minimum price for grapes, wines and musts of PDO and GI? Italian producers, through Uiv, say no to the idea launched by the French inter-professions. A proposal that will be discussed in the context of the mini-regulatory package on the Common Market Organization (CMO) that should be submitted to a trilogue next autumn in Brussels.
“It is supply and demand that determine the price”, underlines the president of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV), Lamberto Frescobaldi. “The minimum price, or recommended, would expose the wine sector to strong risks, first of all because it could level down the products that exceed the value of the indicated price lists. I would not like these recommendations determined by an artifice and not by the market to produce the opposite effect, penalizing the producing companies”.
No to minimum price for grapes, wines and musts of PDO and GI: Uiv rejects the French proposal in the EU
In recent days, in the context of the discussion on the new Common Agricultural Policy, a proposal arrived from France to determine guidelines on the prices of grapes, wines and musts for the production of wine products with PDO or GI.
Immediately from Italy came the comment of Unione Italiana Vini, which declares itself against, through the voice of its president, Lamberto Frescobaldi, the idea launched by the French interprofessions, which aim to extend the competence of interprofessional organizations, allowing these bodies and recognized producer groups to determine prices.
In fact, Uiv believes that the proposal for a recommendation on prices, although generated by the idea of protecting productions in great difficulty with increasingly limited revenues, risks having a further boomerang effect, starting from possible market distortions and limitations on competition, but also from potential deceptive practices along the distribution chain.
On the dynamics, the dangers are latent both in the hypothesis of overestimation and underestimation of the indicated values: on the one hand, it is probable that producers will be damaged due to the potential effect of reducing margins triggered by the price war; on the other hand – therefore with price lists above the equilibrium price – there would be an excess of supply given the reduction in purchases by consumers.
Now the ball is in Brussels’ court, where the proposal will be discussed in the context of the mini-regulatory package on the CMO.
