Vila Real, Portugal, July 15, 2025 (Lusa) - A delegation of winegrowers and association leaders will travel to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on Wednesday to demand "urgent solutions" from the prime minister for the crisis affecting the northern Douro Demarcated Region, announced the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA).

The delegation will gather in front of the parliament and then proceed to the prime minister's official residence.

Complaints and warnings are pouring in from producers in the region who fear they will not be able to sell their grapes this harvest or will have to sell them at low prices, while traders complain of full stocks and falling wine sales.

The aim of the initiative in Lisbon is to deliver the motion approved on 2 July in Peso da Régua, in the northern region of Vila Real, on the day of a demonstration to draw attention to the growing difficulties affecting winegrowers and the Douro Demarcated Region.

"If the struggle of the CNA and the Douro winegrowers has already begun to bear fruit, by forcing the Government to admit that there is a problem in the Douro and to announce measures, we cannot fail to insist that the desperate situation of small and medium-sized producers in the Douro requires more far-reaching measures," the CNA said in a statement.

In Régua, attention was drawn to producers who are selling at prices from 25 years ago, when all production costs have risen sharply in the meantime.

The motion then approved vehemently rejects that the amount of "the benefit" for 2025, which will be set on Friday, should be lower than that for 2024.

"The benefit", which is the amount of grape must that each producer can allocate to the production of Port wine, was 90,000 barrels (550 litres each) in 2024 and 104,000 in 2023, and for this year, the trade proposed, at the interprofessional council of the Douro and Port Wine Institute (IVDP), a reduction to 68,000 barrels.

It is also demanded that the State set minimum prices for grapes and prohibit the purchase of grapes below production costs. It is claimed that the brandy used in the production of fortified wine should be primarily regional, so as to allow the entire production of grapes from the RDD to be sold, and that the Casa do Douro (which represents, defends and promotes the interests of wine producers in the Douro Demarcated Region) be given the legal and operational capacity to play an effective role in stabilising stocks through the purchase and storage of surpluses.

The document also calls for effective monitoring of the entry of musts and wines from outside the region and calls for "immediate and short-term crisis management measures", such as the purchase by the State of surplus stocks from cooperative wineries, refreshing the stocks stored at the Casa do Douro, extraordinary support to compensate winegrowers for loss of income, the scheduling of crisis distillation aimed primarily at the production of cooperative winery members and producers who have not purchased wine from third parties.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sea has announced an action plan for the sustainable management and enhancement of the Demarcated Region wine sector, with integrated measures to reduce surpluses, adjust production potential and strengthen value creation.

The working document will gather contributions from the Douro and Port Wine Institute interprofessional council and the mayors of the Demarcated Region and should be ready in August.

The harvest begins in August and peaks in September.

One of the measures on the table is to use "grapes for distillation" with the aim of reducing wine surpluses in the Demarcated Region by selling surplus grapes and directly ensuring a minimum income for winegrowers.

As the level of participation by producers, the quantity of grapes that could go for distillation and the final amount are not yet known, the measure still needs to be adjusted, but it will be implemented by the Douro and Port Wine Institute, subject to a prior contract between the winegrower, winemaker and distiller, with applications to be submitted by 15 September.

PLI/AYLS // AYLS

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