Growers at last see
some profit
After years of ruinous prices, the 2012 harvest has seen
growers return to profit with 40% increases in grape prices due to the 30% harvest
shortfall in Jerez - and elsewhere. A butt of must has increased from last
year’s 210 euros to 300 euros, an increase of 42%. The shortfall left some
bodegas short of raw material, and they have either had to pay higher prices or
buy in from the Cooperatives.
Bodegas are having to rethink future supplies including the
possibility of replanting vineyard lost through abandonment or uprooting
leaving only 7,000 hectares compared with 10,000 last year. The growers are not
in a mood to cooperate however and return to the loss-making past. They wish to
keep the supply and demand situation as it now is, but are aware that another
drought and a 4% drop in sales (due to the German market) as well as the end of
EU planting subsidies might force the bodegas’ hand.
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