The FEV recalls that the reference prices are prohibited by competition and that the actual actual costs of each wine grower should be used instead.
With the harvest widespread practically throughout the country, the first since the reform of the Law on measures to improve the functioning of the Food Chain was approved last December, from the Spanish Wine Federation highlights the absence of significant incidents to date and reminds all operators the importance of signing long-term contracts to promote stable commercial relations between suppliers and buyers of grapes and avoid the so-called ‘saw teeth’ or very marked oscillations in prices between campaigns.
In this sense, the FEV also wants to emphasize the concept of the effective cost of production, which mentions the Law, recalling that it is always an individual calculation of each winegrower for its exploitation and in no case can it be assumed from a reference price, average or minimum cost obtained through statistical studies for a given area since, Moreover, it is prohibited by the competition rules.
Therefore, and although in recent months have proliferated this type of statistical studies on production costs in different wine regions, carried out by public or private bodies as the case may be, the EFF wishes to stress that this type of study should be taken only for information and can never be understood collectively for all winegrowers in an area or as reference prices to be taken into account by operators, since the actual cost of production will depend not only on the costs to be borne by each individual winegrower but also on its own efficiency in the management of the vineyard.
Precisely to facilitate the control of costs of wine farms the Spanish Wine Interprofessional (OIVE) launched in August its tool GESVID, which allows wineries and winegrowers the collection and calculation of all costs incurred to vineyards, regardless of its location and characteristics and control parameters such as the quality of the grapes, the age of the crop and the variety and the driving and handling system, as well as other external factors such as weather conditions, which vary from one campaign to another and also between plots.
However, since the FEV this new campaign is seen as a step forward in the relations of the entire chain that is happening normally, a high degree of compliance and no major incidents under the supervision of the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA), which is the body to which any operator should turn in case of doubt or any breach that may occur in relation to the law of the Chain.
SOURCE: VINETUR.COM