The harvest in Castilla-La Mancha yields 23.3 million hectoliters of wine and must
The harvesting campaign in Castilla-La Mancha has resulted in a production that exceeds 23 million hectoliters of wine and must, according to data from INFOVI (Market Information System of the Wine Sector), released in the course of The Sectorial Wine Commission that Agro-Food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha held today, December 14th, in Alcazar de San Juan Ciudad Real.
This year-end production data, very similar to last year’s figures (22.9 million), was made public at the meeting held last December 12th at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment.
Castilla-La Mancha has concluded its harvest, virtually identical to the previous and is expected “commercially quiet”
María Jesús Catalá, Territorial Director of CaixaBank in Castilla-La Mancha, took part in the Cooperative Sectorial Commission of Agro-Food Cooperatives of Castilla-La Mancha, within the framework of collaboration that this entity maintains with Cooperatives. Catalá has highlighted the orientation of CaixaBank towards the regional agri-food sector.
With respect to national data, the INFOVI has recorded the figure of 42.3 million hectoliters of wine and must in Spain for this campaign, which is a slight decrease compared to last year (43.28 million) and that, in addition, Means that Castilla-La Mancha produces 54.1% of the national wine and must.
European project AGROSMART-Coop
The meeting was also the framework for a brief presentation of the project “AGROSMART-Coop: Space for the integration, competitiveness and intelligent economic growth of the agro-food cooperatives of the Rural Space SUDOE“. This is a European project in which Agro-Food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha works together with the cooperatives of Galicia, Extremadura, Euskadi, France and Portugal, contributing their vision of value, their assets of talent and their commitment to the business dimension .
The AGROSMART-Coop project is aimed at small-scale cooperatives, because of their importance in rural areas
Castilla-La Mancha Foundation Land of Vineyards
In addition, the sectoral commission has dealt with the current situation of the Castilla-La Mancha Foundation Land of Vineyards, whose funds Cooperatives proposes to destine, solely and exclusively, for the purposes for which it was created: to promote the wine products of Castilla-La Mancha and improve the business and commercial competitiveness of its wine growers and wineries.
From Agro-Food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha, the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture to extinguish this Foundation is rejected, as long as it manages funds raised from the wine sector, which in large part contribute the cooperative wineries, and favors the creation of a permanent dialogue and planning of the regional wine sector, where “we will always be ready to go to whatever forums we are called to work and make our contributions.”
New plantations
At its sectoral meeting, Cooperatives also addressed its approach, set out last December 12th, at the meeting with the Ministry, on new plantations that, by community regulation, the Ministry is obliged to open each year.
La Mancha cooperatives defend the maintenance of new plantations awarded in 2015, which in Spain amounted to 4,173 hectares, and in Castilla-La Mancha, to 1,718 hectares
Cooperatives, like the rest of the agrarian organizations, thinks that some adjustments are needed, as regards the criteria of prioritization in the award of such authorizations; however “is a system that has worked reasonably well, controlling the generation of possible surpluses due to market mismatches.”
Source: Agro-Food Cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha
