Millions of liters of Spanish rosé sold for French wine

Millions of liters of Spanish rosé sold as French wine: this mbadive deception, exposed by the repression of frauds illustrates the harshness of the confrontation between Spanish and French winemakers.

After having received alerts at the end of 2015 on the francization of Spanish wines, the Directorate for the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) launched a survey in 2016 and 2017.

According to the DGCCRF, the cases of Frenchization noted during its investigation 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 + France wine + even by usurping a French IGP name", says the Directorate General of Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention in its investigation report unveiled on Monday.

In total, 743 establishments were audited 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 francization ", says the DGCCRF.

A fleur de lys, a French badade, the mention" Produced in France "or the mention" Bottled in France "were put forward while the original mention" Vin d ' Spain "or" Wine of the European community "appeared on the back of the bottle and in a way that was not very readable, according to the report.

The investigation of the crackdown on fraud was" extended to cafes, hotels and restaurants to check the origin of the wines sold in the pitcher 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 the origin ", whereas it was Spanish wine.

The reason for this fraud? "It's a matter of price," says AFP Jérôme Despey, general secretary of the FNSEA and winemaker in the Hérault. "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. 19659011] Prison sentences

A distortion of competition largely due to large production surpluses in Spain in 2016, which resulted in lower prices.

However, the situation was restored to harvest 2017, very small throughout the European Union, notes Mr. Despey, for whom these controls go "in a good way": "we must continue to have a pressure of controls so that such things can not happen again" , he asked, also calling on the government to put in place "clearer labeling on the origin of the products."

"I asked the DGCCRF (..) to continue its controls in the sector, "said Delphine Gény-Stephann, Secretary of State for the Economy, Since France is the world's second largest producer of wine

This war between winemakers in the south of France and Spain had resulted in very strong tensions in 2017: the actions of winegrowers to protest against these imports were multiplied in the Gard, Hérault, Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales

The French and Spanish Ministers of Agriculture had met almost a year ago to date 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.

In the case of scammers detected, compliance injunctions, minutes and procedures Penalties for deception were launched by the DGCCRF, which specifies that if "serious deficiencies" were noted, "which may relate to large volumes", "the controls showed that the regulations were correctly applied in the majority of cases".

"The penalties for deceptive commercial practice are two years' imprisonment and a fine of 300,000 euros, which may be increased to 10% of the annual average turnover, proportionate to the benefits derived from the breach. ", says the DGCCRF.

09/07/2018 18:21:55 –
Paris (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP