February 19, 2003

French Revolution

The French are revolting - this time over the bureaucracy stifling their wine industry.

Vineyards are threatening to withhold tax payments to the official body which represents their interests because, they say, the money is not being properly used for their benefit.

"They are fed up with a governing bureaucracy which some feel does little to promote their business," said Maurice Carroll of wine and travel website, winedrive.com. "This is tied into the way the French Government distributes agricultural aid. French wine is now outsold by Australia in its biggest export market, here in the UK. Yet the wine producers see nothing being done to address the problem."

The vineyards contributed an estimated Euros 80 million last year (2002) to the towards ADAR, the Agence de Développement Agricole et Rural. One producer from Bordeaux, who refused to be named for fear of repercussions, said it is not that they don't want to pay the tax. 'The problem is that every year, we have to pay into this fund, yet we see our business declining. The bureaucrats are very good at talking but not very good at action. It is time for this to change and the feeling now is that the money should be in a different fund where we can have some control over how it is applied.'

Chateau owners throughout the country will be watching closely as the regional vineyard organisations meet in Paris today (Wednesday) to discuss paying the tax into a special account they can control. If the decision does not go their way, the industry could be looking at its own French Revolution.

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