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After receiving alerts at the end of 2015 on the "francization" of Spanish wines, the Directorate General of Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), opened a survey in 2016, which it has continued in 2017.
The cases of "francisation" that it identified during these investigations concerned more than 70,000 hectoliters of wine. The equivalent of 10 million bottles of rose.
According to the establishments, the quantities of wine presented fraudulently ranged from 2,000 to 34,500 hectoliters. "Spanish wines were sold in bulk as + wine from France + even by usurping a name" of French origin protected, explained the DGCCRF in its report on Monday.
A total of 743 establishments were controlled in 2016 / 2017: "22% of establishments visited in 2016 and 15% of establishments visited in 2017 were subject to non-conformities ranging from confusing presentation to Frenchization", said this organization.
A fleur de lys, a French badade, the mention "Produced in France" or the mention "Bottled in France" were put forward while the mention of origin "Wine of Spain" or "Wine of the European community" appeared on the back of the bottle and in a manner that is difficult to read, the authors of the report noted.
The investigation of the administration responsible for the repression of fraud was "extended to cafes, hotels and restaurants to check in particular the origin of the wines sold in the pi by check or glbad ", 2,414 establishments having been thus checked.
The investigators noted among the failings" the absence of mention of origin of the wine on the wine list while the confusion is maintained by the use of French-sounding commercial names ", but also" voluntary Francisations of origin ", when it was Spanish wine.
Why such fraud? "A question of price!" Answered AFP Jérôme Despey, the secretary general of the FNSEA agricultural syndicate and winemaker in the Hérault (South). "The bulk Spanish rosé was sold in 2016 at around 0.35 euro per liter, at the French level it was on average 0.85 euro per liter, it was double that!", He recalls. 19659009] Prison sentences
A gap largely due to large production surpluses in Spain in 2016, which led to price declines.
The situation was restored with the 2017 harvest, very small throughout the European Union, said Mr. Despey, for which these controls are "in the right direction": "We must continue to have a pressure of controls so that such things can not happen again", has he wished, also calling on the government to put in place "a clearer labeling on the origin of products."
"I asked the DGCCRF (..) to continue its controls in the sector on a regular basis ", badured Delphine Gény-Stephann, the Secretary of State for the Economy, recalling that France is the e second world wine producer
Tensions between wine growers in both countries peaked in 2017, with a proliferation of winegrowers' actions in the south of France to protest against these imports.
French ministers and Spanish Agriculture had met a year ago in Paris to try to bury the hatchet. This meeting has since enabled the establishment of tools to limit price volatility, according to Mr. Despey.
When fraudsters were detected, there were orders for compliance, minutes and criminal proceedings for deception. But according to the DGCCRF, if "serious deficiencies" were noted, "which may relate to large volumes", "the controls showed that the regulations were correctly applied in most cases."
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