Grape prices: Viticulture Association calls for national collaboration

Like countless areas, Austria's wine industry was and is massively affected by the Corona crisis. With the approaching grape harvest, the winemakers face the next challenge. In the free grape market, grape prices are already being rumored to be well below 50 cents per kg of grapes. And that especially from trading companies, which mostly deliver to the food retail trade, which is precisely the sector that has grown as a result of the restrictions of the lockdown in wine sales (with a sales increase of 17% compared to the previous year). “Grape prices of 50 cents are the absolute minimum for cost-covering grape production. It cannot be that purchases are made below this cost price - especially not in the current situation. I demand a national alliance and an end to this price boycott ”, appeals Johannes Schmuckenschlager, President of the Austrian Winegrowing Association and the Chamber of Agriculture of Lower Austria as well as a member of the National Council, to the domestic ...