€1.39 per bottle, “we paid less for our wines than they cost us to produce”

B

low cost, high breakage tools. This Monday, November 4, Young Farmers from Vaucluse, Drôme and Gard went to the Lidl stores in Orange and Bagnols-sur-Cèze to buy bottles of Côtes-du-Rhône 2023 on sale at -30 %: “the first product €1.99, the second product €1.39”. Or €1.69 each bottle. New lower prices against which Rhone producers protested by breaking the bottles purchased in front of the store. “Lidl is breaking viticulture, we are breaking the bottles” summarizes Jordan Charransol, the president of the Young Farmers of Vaucluse, who denounces a race to the bottom of prices: “a bottle with an appellation, whatever the AOC, is a devaluation of the appellation. There are wines without geographical indication to put at its prices, which are not remunerative. We paid for our bottles. It didn't ruin us. We paid less for our wines than what they cost us to produce. »

Contacted, Lidl denies breaking the market: “wine growers protested in reaction to the sale of a Côtes-du-Rhône wine that we were offering at €1.99 per bottle (along with a one-off commercial offer from October 18 to 20 at €1.69 per bottle for the simultaneous purchase of 2 bottles*). This price is positioned in relation to the market. » Maintaining a position already asserted at the start of the year, the brand specifies that “we do not negotiate the wines we buy: we accept offers to generate volumes”.

“This is the classic response from distributors. Tell us that if they buy at this price, it’s because we sell to them at this price” sighs Jordan Charransol, for whom “if Lidl was really aware of the wine crisis, if they wanted to preserve viticulture for the future, it would refuse these prices.” Calling for revenue to be generated while “too many winegrowers are losing money”the winemaker estimates that the minimum selling price for a bottle of Côtes-du-Rhône would be €3. In the case of the bottle on sale at Lidl, “Given the wine in it, the bottle could be €4. The consumer would not be robbed. » A valuation that the president of the JA du Vaucluse hopes to see imposed with the revision of the Egalim law: “when we take into account the cost of production, mathematically we earn more money”.

Defending the need to offer attractive prices to sell in volumes, Lidl always calls for a global positioning of distributors so that everyone plays according to the same market rules. “We call for intervention by the public authorities in the situation of the French wine profession. All stakeholders must mobilize together. It is collectively that the solution must be found” indicates Lidl, recalling that the German brand “represents nearly 8% of the mass distribution market and cannot, to its extent, bear responsibility for the practices of all the players. The brand offers prices aligned with the market, far from being the lowest found in this department. »

Having also covered the municipal signs, the Young Farmers carried out new actions intended to be good-natured. “I don’t know what we’re going to do next. It was nice. It was the first act of a play which will continue in the coming weeks against those who do not play the game. sketch Jordan Charransol.

*: Still easily found in stores this end of October (below October 28 in Gironde), the promotion in question highlights €1.39 more than €1.99 per bottle.