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Increase in French government aid for organic viticulture On 17 September, Michel Barnier, French Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, attended a formal meeting with Agence Bio. This comes one year following the launch of the “Plan for an organic agriculture in 2012”, which aims to treble the organic surface area of French agriculture, with the goal of reaching 6% of the total by 2012. |
At the September meeting, Barnier announced new measures to encourage farmers to convert their farming methods to organic ones. These measures follow the Grennelle de l’Environnement* initiative, and include:
- reinforcement of the structure of Agence Bio through granting them €15m over the next five years;
- confirmation of the withdrawal of 53 types of pesticides, 30 before 2009;
- dissemination of organic information regarding pesticides via a network of 3,000 experimental farms;
- introduction of a new direction for R&D in order to integrate more organic innovation in agriculture;
- relaxation of the rules concerning financial assistance for conversion.
According to Agence Bio, the total organic surface area in France in 2007 reached 557,133ha. The number of organic winegrowers increased by 16% from 2006 to 2007 and organic vineyards represented 2.6% of the French vineyard. The strongest conversion to organic viticulture took place in Burgundy with a 28% increase in 2007 in comparison with 2006. Other key regions showing high conversion rates to organic methods include the Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region with an increase of 24% and Languedoc-Roussillon with 16%.
*See French Wines Bulletin November/December 2007 issue