Logroño, (EFE).- The Regulatory Council of the Qualified Designation of Origin (DOCa) Rioja urges the governments of La Rioja and Navarre to speed up the measures to support the sector to alleviate the excess storage of wine, as has been done by the Basque executive, reported this Friday, in a statement.
He recalled that on January 11 he contacted for the first time the three autonomous administrations of the DOCa -La Rioja, the Basque Country and Navarra- to share the sector’s concern for the situation and the imbalance that has occurred, as well as for the express request of aid that came to complement the measures already adopted.
All these measures, he specified, are essential for “a rapid reactivation that could buy enough time to wait for a necessary growth in sales.”
The first premise of the Regulatory Council “was, is and will be, trying to leave no one behind, in a model that is conceived from unity and uniqueness”.
“The opposite -he stressed- would be to let the market work on its own, a situation in which there would be winners and losers”.
The second measure, a consequence of this, is that “the Administrations act in unison, with equal treatment for their companies”.
60 million to distillation between 2023 and 2024
There have been three months of permanent contacts, until last March the need for distillation was quantified, estimated at 30 million liters by 2023 and 30 million liters by 2024, the Council emphasized.
Distillation, together with the rest of the measures, such as the already arbitrated green harvest, the containment of yields, the elimination of the debate on new plantations and the qualitative “stock”, as well as the multiple planned actions that aim to contribute to boosting sales, they will help to try to recover the balance in the short term, he assured.
Support for the measures of the Basque Government
At yesterday’s meeting of the Permanent Commission of the Council, the agility of the Basque Government in announcing direct aid measures to all Álava winegrowers in the Denomination was described as “very positive”, as well as other complementary ones that, in addition, will be added to those who practice and receive aid for the green harvest.
The Regulatory Council has also valued the announcement of the Basque Government to enable funds for the wineries and to facilitate the distillation of an estimated volume of 8 million liters “at attractive prices, which will be increased by what can be received from the alcohol companies” .
On the contrary, the Regulatory Council has regretted “the incomprehensible delay on the part of the Government of La Rioja and the Comunidad Foral Navarra to give the same type of response,” the statement said.
Added to this concern is the “absence of news” transmitted by the associations that met yesterday with the President of the Government of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, who was urged to adopt the same behavior as their Basque counterparts.
This same request, has detailed the Regulatory Council, is extended to the Foral Community of Navarra, in a manner consistent with the unity of action that, from the beginning, has been requested from the Administrations, since, “otherwise, part of the winegrowers and wineries of the Denomination would be clearly discriminated against”.
“Considering the relevance of the wine sector as the economic engine of the region, the Regulatory Council considers a reaction and a positive response without delay to be unavoidable, and thus demands it from the competent authorities.”
Andreu asks to know the volume of wine stored in La Rioja
For her part, the president of the La Rioja Government, after meeting yesterday with the La Rioja wine organizations, asked them to send her the excess volume of Rioja wine that they have stored (stock) in a period of fifteen days in order to raise a helps distillation.
The Riojan wine organizations, meeting with Andreu, in another joint statement, have described the meeting this Friday as “disappointing” and have demanded speed.