Ciudad Real
2025, may 6, 7 & 8
13
May 2015
Ramón Tamames, Professor of Economy, has been in charge of moderating a round table on "Export and Production Models", which has been held this morning at FENAVIN, the National Trade Fair on Wine that is being hosted in Ciudad Real from May 12th to May 14th.
The goal of the round table has been to reflect on these aspects of the wine industry and along with Tamames important vine growing entrepreneurs and winemakers such as José Luis Bonet (Freixenet), José García Carrión (García Carrión Group), Félix Solís (Félix Solís) and Carlos Falcó (Pagos de Familia Marqués de Griñón), as well as Pau Roca, Secretary of the Spanish Wine Federation have also intervened.
"We are the first export power of wines in quality, although we must improve our situation on the global markets", Tamames said during the presentation of the event. And he also pointed out that, notwithstanding, "there is a predominance of bulk wine at very low prices, with which the average price of all sales stands at about 1.1 Euros per liter, the lowest to be found on the global market".
Tamames, before introducing the impressive cast of lecturers, reflected out loud, asking himself if we are actually dealing with a curse or inadequate policies. "At any rate, wine is a liquid food product, which in moderation contributes to improving one"s health", he assured.
José Luis Bonet, President of Freixenet, regrets the fact that domestic consumption of wine is on the decline, despite the fact that we all know that wine is healthy. "We have the best wine in the world at a cheap price", he said; and he indicated that instead of exporting we should be talking about internationalization. "Notwithstanding, we find ourselves in a moment of recuperation and it will depend on the companies whether we are at the height of commercialization, hence we must continue to work hard together to reconvert the industry and lead it into a future that favors the people".
On his part Carlos Falcó has insisted that in Spain wine is sold well below the price at which it is sold in the remaining countries. In his opinion it would be interesting to work with a model of growth at ten years and multiply the value of sales and of the liter by two, just like Italy did at its time during the period standing between the year 2000 and 2014. "We are invoicing half of what Italy does, despite having greater production. The tendency should be to reduce bulk wine and promote bottled wine", he concluded.
In the opinion of García Carrión the problem resides in the sale of bulk wine. He has championed the unification of the industry in order to export the Spain Brand. He also referred to the young population as a potential sector of consumption, for which educational campaigns should be developed that are directed at this population, with the same emphasizing responsible consumption. He also considers that the sale price of wines in restaurants should be reduced "because with the crisis we have seen how the prices of the menus have gone down, but not the prices of the wines".
Finally and in as far as exporting is concerned, he mentioned that Europe should be treated like a local market and we should be more concerned with internationalization outside of the scope of the European Union, looking to emerging countries such as Nigeria and China.
Félix Solís has focused his intervention on Castilla-La Mancha wines, upholding the idea that the sale price of bulk wine should improve, because while we reach a satisfactory solution we do have to continue selling wine. "We have the best product of Spain due to the weather conditions, with a lot of wine and quality at a reasonable price, thus we have the capacity to improve sales".
The round of interventions was closed off by Pau Roca, Secretary of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV) who made reference to the production model, conditioned as it is by interventionism. "We sell at cheap prices because we do not have a prestigious brand before third country competitors in which the production model practically does not intervene, and with regards to the domestic market, there is very scarce growth". He pointed out that the sector must be structured, because as the market is right now it is impossible to compete with countries such as Italy and France that have an important domestic brand, a defined image of a country and the application of very different rules.
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