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INSUFFICIENT HELP? The Italians (and many others) confirm it.
However, there is more to be done now. Wi- Their wines have been very popular in former
nemakers report financial problems, troubles Eastern Bloc countries for a long time and the
with cash flows caused by the disruption of COVID-19 pandemic has only emphasised this
supply chains and closing of some markets, trend. In 2019, consumers from Poland, the
mainly restaurants, bars and hotels. Wine- Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania,
makers in Spain had to watch their harvest Bulgaria, the Baltic states and Ukraine purcha-
rotting in fields as the traditional grape pic- sed foreign wines worth 1.335 billion euros.
kers from Balkan countries did not arrive be- Almost a third of them (26 %) represented wi-
cause of border closures or strict conditions nes from Italian regions. In the first months of
concerning travelling this year. Producers in the pandemic starting, the export of Italian wi-
Italy experienced a similar situation because nes to these countries increased by 4.3 % and
seasonal workers from the Balkan countries Prosecco is an overall winner.
were missing in vineyards owing to the same Examples of good practice are not unco-
reasons. Let us add unexpected and substan- mmon at our place either. It followed from
tial costs related to the implementation of a survey that was carried out in two thousand
safety measures at workplaces and omnipre- Czech winemakers and wineries by a company
sent risk that employees can be quarantined named Focus in autumn that the Czechs have
anytime. not given up the fight with the pandemic ei-
Moreover, the wine market in the European ther. Almost half of the addressed winemakers,
Union faced worsening conditions already in or more precisely 46 % of them, said that be-
2019 and this is why wine stocks are on the cause of the situation they had to look for new
highest level of the last decades. The reason is ways of distribution of their wines and another
mainly the combination of the record harvest 36 % of winemakers stated they changed their
in 2018 and generally a decrease of wine con- sales strategies. The loss will not uphold it, yet
sumption in the whole EU27. it indicates one thing. We can be proud of wi-
This is why the EU institutions have already nemakers in Europe. They deserve it. ƅ
accepted urgent temporary measures several
times in the course of last year to counterba-
lance market distortions. Last time it was this
February. Basically, this means relaxing the
existing rules for granting support, for exam-
ple enabling continuous reimbursement of
not-yet-finished projects and highly-valued
flexibility for the EU members that in case of
need can derogate from these rules now. It
may be just a small compensation but every-
thing counts.
THE EAST HOLDS THE WEST
People already say that Europe is undergo-
ing the deepest economic crisis since the end
of the Second World War and it will take some
time before it is back on its feet at full strength
again. But we can also hear that every crisis is
an opportunity.
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