France is about to destroy 80 million gallons (302.8 million liters) of wine at a cost of $216 million to help producers struggling with significant surpluses.
As fewer people consume wine and it becomes increasingly expensive to produce, particularly due to extreme weather conditions, several regions of France, such as Bordeaux in particular, are producing too much wine and cannot sell their surplus at prices low enough to make it a profit, reports the Washington Post.
The European Union initially granted France $172 million to support vineyards, and the French government granted additional amounts last week.
Using these agents, producers will convert their wine into pure alcohol that can be used in other products such as perfumes or cleaning products.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the money “will be used to stop the decline in prices while ensuring that producers find new sources of income.”
While in 1926 each French person consumed an average of 136 liters of wine per year, today it is only 40 liters.
According to Elizabeth Carter, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, overproduction of wine is not a new problem.
“I am not the least bit surprised that France wants to destroy its surpluses in order to raise prices by limiting quantities,” she said. “It’s a problem they’ve been dealing with since the 19th century.”
However, the problem has worsened in recent years, particularly due to the pandemic and the rise in energy prices related to the war in Ukraine, AFP reports.