On Tuesday 22 September, the Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), Pau Roca, and the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, welcomed speakers from the wine tourism sector and participants from all over the world for a webinar jointly organised by the two organisations.
Held in cooperation with the International Wine Tourism Think Tank and moderated by Mariëtte de Toit-Helmbold, based in Cape Town, the focus of the webinar was put on “Innovating in wine tourism in the context of COVID-19".
Speakers from Argentina, Chile, France, Italy and Spain shared their recent experience on how they have dealt with the impact of COVID 19 on their wine tourism activity. Some common trends have emerged in how to innovate in order to rethink and recreate wine tourism in the current context. The importance of local markets, new partnerships, open air experiences and digital transformation were highlighted.
Get to know the customers to offer a personalised experience, finding the right balance between technology and human contact are fundamental for the participating panellists, as digital modifications are here to stay. Along with these changes, improving local tourism turned to be the key for recovery, having sustainability as a pillar.
Watch the webinar here:
On 13 October 2020, the World Trade Organization (WTO) published its arbitration decision on the Boeing subsidy dispute. This ruling allows the European Union to request authorisation from the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) to take countermeasures with respect to the United States to the maximum total amount of 3,993,212,564 USD per year.
The 13 October decision echoes the permission the WTO granted the United States a year ago to raise tariffs on European products by 7.5 billion USD.
The 16-year battle is linked to the national subsidies received by the two airplane giants, Airbus and Boeing. The parties do not believe the estimated damages to both sides over the course of the trade war can be compensated for solely through measures concerning aircraft construction and trade. As such, sanctions have been authorised for other products. Wine has thus become a bargaining chip in a quarrel that it has seemingly little to do with.
The sanctions taken by the United States last year as part of the same dispute have already had a severe impact on the European wine sector. The 13 October decision opens up several avenues of negotiation to the two parties. One option is an escalation of new retaliatory measures. In actual fact, the United States is still a long way from reaching the 7.5 billion USD authorised last year, and the European Union now has the option to begin rolling out a plan for sanctions of up to nearly 4 billion USD. Another approach is that of dialogue and the release of products not directly related to the dispute from negotiations.
Although this fight between the two giants demonstrates the importance of wine for the economies involved, the OIV is calling for this opportunity to be seized and all necessary efforts made to re-establish free market conditions for wine.
The Director General of the OIV, Pau Roca, reiterated that “the wine sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis throughout the world and it has also been impacted by events linked to climate change”. He called for “every effort to be made at all levels to limit stressors and work towards facilitating recovery.”
To attend this press conference, journalists are kindly asked to send an email with their name and their professional contact details to press@oiv.int.
- Date: Tuesday 27 October 2020
- Time: 3pm CET
- Location: Zoom; YouTube livestreaming
Within the framework of OIV Agreements, Russia will be responsible for the financial costs of introducing this new language over the course of a three-year period. This should allow for translations of all OIV recommendations and fundamental texts to be made quickly available.
The plan will enable the Russian-speaking community to better understand and take on board the international standards and practices the Organisation has adopted to improve the conditions under which vine and wine products are produced and marketed.
The proposal is to be presented during a General Assembly at the end of November. Following its acceptance by Member States, Russian speakers will join the Italian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers who already benefit from the five official languages of the OIV. This will facilitate active participation and the exchange of expertise across a scientific network of countries with long viticultural traditions.
Speaking from the OIV’s headquarters in Paris, by web conference, Director General Pau Roca, presented on 27 October, the first estimates of 2020 world wine production.
- Lower than average production volume in the EU, where measures to reduce the harvest volume had a significant impact in Italy, France and Spain notwithstanding the overall favourable climatic conditions.
- First harvest forecasts in the US indicate volumes in line with 2019, but uncertainty caused by wildfires might lead to further revisions.
- Drop of South America’s wine production, especially in Argentina and Chile due to unfavourable weather conditions.
- South Africa finally back to “normality” after several years of drought.
- Australia records a low harvest due to bushfires while New Zealand shows a record harvest volume in 2020.
Replay
2020 Wine production first estimates
