Interesting article; most relevant to New Zealand, a country which gives no
subsidies or other assistance whatsoever to its wine industry.

We just "love" level playing fields (and no s******ing from the US either -
despite all the "free trade" rhetoric - you are just as bad - maybe not in
the wine industry - but in the greater primary sector ????????????????)

01/02/2005 08:21 AM - Reuters

France will give aid worth 70 million euros to its embattled wine growers,
hit by overproduction, lower consumption at home and rising competition
abroad from "New World" wines.

The plan, announced on Monday after a meeting between farm minister
Dominique Bussereau and the industry's main leaders, included 40 million
euros in preferential loans for indebted farm businesses, the ministry said
in a statement.

This "will enable winemakers in financial distress to spread their financial
commitments over five years, at a reduced cost," it said.

There is also 15 million euros available in low interest loans for wine
cooperatives, as well as other measures to help younger farmers in
particular.

The government said it would also spend 3.5 million euros this year
promoting French wine exports.

After Italy, France remains is world's top wine maker, producing some 7.3
billion euros worth of wine in 2003 and accounting for about a fifth of the
world's wine production in 2001, the latest year for which data is
available.

But the wine sector - a pillar of French life that provides 75,000 jobs -
has been hit hard by competition from rivals such as Australia, South Africa
and Chile.

Wine has also become a less fashionable drink at home. Producers put
consumption at 58 litres per head in 2002 against 100 litres in the early
1960s.

To boost the sector, the Senate, the upper house of parliament, agreed
earlier this month to ease the 1991 "Evin law" banning wine adverts on
television and at sports events, by allowing producers to praise a wine's
taste, quality and vintage.


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