Logroño, (EFE). -The Government of La Rioja will enable a budget of 15 million euros to allocate a volume of 40 million liters of wine communicated, at a rate of 1.13 euros per liter, the Minister of Agriculture, Eva Hita, announced this Wednesday.
In an informative conference after the meeting of the Governing Council, he pointed out that 134 wineries in the region have provided data on this need for distillation of the 384 active in La Rioja.
In addition, 11% of these 134 wineries have communicated the need to distill all of their stocks, which is “unaffordable” with public funds, according to the counselor.
UAGR and ARAG-ASAJA demand institutional pressure
For their part, the UAGR and ARAG-ASAJA have asked the La Rioja and national governments to be agile and pressure the European Commission to authorize the distillation of wine crisis requested by this community, as they have informed EFE.
“It is still not certain that there will be aid for distillation, we depend on the EU”, which is why the UAGR considers that both the Government of La Rioja and that of Spain have to put strong pressure on the Commission.
Along the same lines, ARAG-ASAJA has indicated that, “unlike what the Basque Country has done, which has already taken action on the matter, there is a considerable delay that is having its effects on the wine market and also on the grape price.