Douro winemakers travel to Lisbon to demand urgent measures from the Government

Complaints and warnings are mounting across the region from producers who fear they will not be able to sell their grapes this harvest or will have to sell them at low prices, while traders complain of full stocks and falling wine sales.

The aim of the initiative in Lisbon is to deliver the motion approved on July 2, in Peso da Régua, district of Vila Real, the day on which a demonstration took place to raise awareness of the growing difficulties affecting winegrowers and the Douro Demarcated Region (RDD).

"If the struggle of the CNA and the Douro winegrowers has already begun to bear fruit, by forcing the Government to admit that there is a problem in the Douro and to announce measures, we cannot fail to insist that the desperate situation of the Douro's small and medium-sized producers requires more far-reaching measures," the CNA said in a statement.

In Régua, attention was drawn to producers who sell at prices they had been selling at for 25 years, when all production costs had increased dramatically in the meantime.

The motion then approved vehemently rejects the idea that the amount of benefits for 2025, which will be set on Friday, will be lower than that of 2024.

The benefit, which is the amount of must that each producer can allocate to the production of Poro wine, was 90,000 barrels (550 liters each) in 2024 and 104,000 in 2023 and, for this year, the trade proposed, at the interprofessional council of the Douro and Porto Wine Institute (IVDP), a reduction to 68,000 barrels.

It is also required that the State set minimum prices for grapes and establish a ban on the purchase of grapes below production costs. It is demanded that the brandy to be used in the production of fortified wine be primarily regional, in order to allow the entire grape production of the RDD to be sold, and that the Casa do Douro be given the legal and operational capacity to play an effective role in stabilizing stocks, through the purchase and storage of surpluses.

The document also calls for effective monitoring of the entry of musts and wines from outside the region and requests “immediate and short-term crisis management” measures, such as the purchase by the State of surplus stocks from cooperative wineries, refreshing the stocks stored at Casa do Douro, extraordinary support to compensate winegrowers for loss of income, the scheduling of a crisis distillation directed primarily at the productions of cooperative winery members and for producers who have not purchased wines from third parties.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sea announced an action plan for the sustainable management and valorization of the RDD wine sector, with integrated actions to reduce surpluses, adjust production potential and reinforce value creation.

The working document will gather input from the IVDP's interprofessional council and the RDD's mayors and should be ready in August. The harvest begins in August and culminates in September.

One of the measures on the table is the use of "grapes for distilling wine," which aims to reduce surplus wine in the DDR by disposing of surplus grapes and directly ensuring a minimum income for winegrowers.

Because the producers' participation, the quantity of grapes that could be used for distillation and the final amount are not known, the measure still needs to be adjusted, but it will be implemented by the IVDP, through a prior contract between the winegrower, winemaker and distiller, and requires the submission of applications by September 15th.