This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at COAG reclama a la CE el mantenimiento del “status quo” en materia de control de plantaciones de viñedo

COAG Demands to the CE the maintenance of the “status quo” in matter of control of plantations of vineyard

24/10/2012

24 October 2012

The Coordinator of Organisations of Agriculturalists and Graziers (COAG) has demanded to the European Commission that keep the “status quo” in matter of gestión of rights of plantation of viñedo. Like this it moved it to him the past 18 October, the manager of the sector vitivinícola of COAG and vice-president of the Consultative Committee “Wine” of the EU, Alejandro García-gasco, to representatives of the Cabinet of the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dacian Ciolos, during the bilateral meeting celebrated in Brussels.

García-gasco transmitted the worry of this organisation by the last statements of the Commissioner of Agriculture on the future of the rights of plantation of viñedo in the EU, proposing a new system more flexible, without strict limitation of surfaces and whose gestión would leave basically in hands of organisations interprofesionales. To this respecto, the manager vitivinícola of COAG reaffirmed the defence of the current system of rights of plantation of public gestión. A system that has revealed in the course of the last decades like a “effective instrument for the politics of quality and for the gestión of the potential of production in the breast of the European Union, by what does not have felt to substitute it by another that would be ineffective and his gestión would result unfeasible in the Spanish State”. In this sense, underlined that the EU does not need to increase his number of hectares because the reduction of 20 million hectolitros planned for this campaign in the EU is circumstantial and has given by the confluencia of three factors in the time: drought and freezing in main producing countries, new plantations that still have not gone in in production promoted by the increasing applications to restructure the viñedos and adapt them to the market and the effect of the measure of start of 175.000 hectares in all the community territory.

Meeting between García-gasco, of COAG, and Alexandra Catalao of the cabinet of the Commissioner Ciolos.

A threat for 200.000 viticultores/Spanish ace

The liberalisation of the plantations of viñedo, foreseen for the year 2016, would cause a deslocalización of the production that would loom the viticultural heritage of 200.000 viticultores/professional ace in our country and the environingingmental balance of the main producing regions, case of Castile-La Mancha, to the not existing viable alternatives to this type of crop.

Does not be necessary to forget that with the release of plantations would put in risk an important element of fixation of the rural population, would weaken the productive conditions of the traditional zones of crop, being especially hurtful for the zones of more difficulties and the protected by indications of quality and would produce a descent in the prices of the grapes and the wines, by an increase of the offer. And all this, without any type of mechanism of regulation of market in the OCM only.

The descent of prices would have like consequence the inability of the producers to bear the costs of production, causing the abandonment and, in general, an important descent of the quality. Likewise the map of the viticultural property would change and would put in risk his familiar character of the exploitations vitivinícolas.