EU tries to render wine market more competitive fro Cyprus

Cyprus faces a major problem selling its wines to the European Union, Director at the EU Directorate for Agriculture and Rural Development Antonis Constantinou has said, as he presented at a press conference here Commission proposals on wide-ranging reforms to improve competitiveness and boost wine sales.

Yiannakis Georgiades, President of the Cyprus Wine Products Council, who also attended the presentation in Nicosia, said that between 2003 and 2006 wine exports were reduced by 1/7 in hundred litres, while imports increased and reached, during the same period, 3.5 million hundred litres in relation to 1,7 before 2003.

The Commission proposals aim to increase competitiveness of EU producers, win back markets, balance supply and demand, simplify the rules, preserve the best traditions of EU wine production, reinforce the social fabric of rural areas and respect the environment.

Key to the reform will be making better use of the budget (€1.3 billion), which will remain at the current level. Under the proposals, all the inefficient market support measures – various aids for distillation, private storage aid, export refunds – would be abolished from day one.

“We have had a year of intense dialogue on how to get the EU wine sector back on top. I have visited many wine regions to listen to their concerns and share my views. Our proposal takes account of the concerns expressed, notably by boosting the promotion of our wines on export markets, and by limiting grubbing up in environmentally sensitive areas,” said Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.
“We currently waste too much money – over 1/3rd of our budget – getting rid of surplus wine instead of improving our competitiveness and promoting our wines. I am convinced my proposal will reinvigorate the European wine sector and allow us to take our rightful place as the world’s biggest and best. So let’s leave behind the rhetoric and do what’s best for our wine growers and consumers,” she added.