Winegrowers are angry faced with the drop in the prices of their bottles on the shelves. “The real problem is the traders who collect these wine growers who tell us: ‘Help us to generate volume because our vats are full’”justified Michel Biero, vice-president of Lidl France, on the set of C L’Hebdo. French vineyards in fact have stocks of wine which are not selling, due to falling consumption. Result: the bottles are sold off to traders and mass consumers. But a bottle sold at 1.99 euros barely costs 60 cents for the producer.
We tried to contact several merchants in the Bordeaux region used to buying wine that sells for less than 2 euros, without success. According to Jean-Marie Cardebat, professor of economics at the University of Bordeaux and specialist in the wine industry, “mass distribution and purchasing centers behave extremely aggressively. (…) They are digging their own grave because they are getting the consumer used to bottles priced at less than 2 euros”.
Contacted, Lidl highlights the difficulties in the wine world and calls on the public authorities to help them, while specifying that the prices they apply on wine are far from being the lowest in mass distribution.
Studies:
Press articles:
Researchers:
Jean-Marie Cardebat: Professor of economics at the University of Bordeaux and affiliated professor at INSEEC Grande Ecole
Specialist in wine economics and the wine industry
Jean-Marie Cardebat – linkedin
Fabrice Chaudier: Consultant in trade and marketing of wine markets
Other sources:
Farmers:
Bastien Mercier: winegrower in Gironde, member of the Viti 33 collective
Rémi Dumas: winegrower, president of the Young Farmers of Hérault
Benoit Lurie: winegrower in Vaucluse
Non-exhaustive list
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