By STA
The government has issued a decree on measures to remedy the market disruptions in the wine sector caused by the coronavirus pandemic, worth EUR 5.1 million. Like last year, the decree provides for temporary exceptional measures of crisis wine distillation and crisis wine storage for this year.
Around EUR 5.1 million will be allocated for the two measures – EUR 4.8 million for crisis distillation and EUR 300,000 for crisis wine storage. The two measures will be financed by the sector-specific national financial envelope for wine, while additional funding will also be provided by the national budget.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, an estimated 10 million litres of wine need to be withdrawn in order to rebalance the wine market in Slovenia, based on the level of wine stocks in 2020 and an inquiry into the stagnation in wine sales.
Last year, measures were already taken to withdraw certain quantities of wine that are not marketable, due to significant disruptions on the wholesale wine market, retail and beverage service sectors.
These measures include crisis distillation of wine into industrial alcohol or alcohol for medicinal purposes and crisis storage of wine, whereby a certain quantity is temporarily withdrawn from the market, the Government Communication Office said.