Logroño, (EFE).. The challenge of the Rioja Qualified Denomination of Origin (DOca) is “to navigate uncertainty without losing the excellence that makes us unique,” said the president of its Regulatory Council, Fernando Ezquerro.
“The 2021-2025 Strategic Plan continues to be our roadmap, a compass measured by know-how and joint decisions to point us in the right direction,” adds Ezquerro in his letter introducing the 2022 DOCa Rioja report, to which the La Rioja, Basque and Navarrese communities belong.
In this letter, entitled “We move forward together with confidence”, Ezquerro indicates that “it is time for Rioja to unfold its full potential and trust in its value and quality arguments to embrace sustained and sustainable growth for all”.
“We are viticulturists and winemakers resilient like our land, in its image and likeness. We create value. And we want to continue being by the people’s side, because wine is celebration and life” and, “on this path, we advance together with confidence”, he adds in the report of the Regulatory Council, released this Thursday.
It recognizes that “it has been, in short, a period not exempt from difficulties, which have once again revealed the maturity of this Denomination to make decisions in complex situations”, in order to “guarantee its leadership and profitability throughout its value chain, ensuring the future of all of us who integrate it and we assume the commitment to continue developing it”.
Ezquerro considers that 2021 was “a turning point” for the DOCa, “little by little leaving behind the adverse effects of the pandemic”; and “2022 and its complex global situation entailed a new challenge for the sector”.
“The year has not been without difficulties”, he indicates, marked by the start of the war in Ukraine, its repercussion in the increase in energy prices, the “shortage” of raw materials and the “uncertainty” caused by the exit of the European Union of the main export market of Rioja.
In this scenario and, thanks to the “enormous” effort of all the wineries and viticulturists that are part of the Denomination, “Rioja managed to grow in key countries and strengthened its market position in Spain, with modest progress in the marketing of sales nationals”.