If there are still winegrowers who believe in High Environmental Value, there are fewer of them to grow the government label which is no longer flourishing between regulatory tightening, lack of valorization, absence of promotion and uninterrupted criticism.
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His face is still drooping. This first July 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture counts 24,200 wine estates certified High Environmental Value (HVE), a slight increase of 3% compared to January 2024. Concentrating 61% of the certified, viticulture remains the historic heavyweight of the HVE label, which remains in decline with now 39,772 labeled domains (+4% in six months). It seems a long time ago when this government certification exploded the counters and targets: with 25,000 certified on January 1, 2022 when the 2018 Biodiversity plan set the ambition of 15,000 farms. Launched in 2012, will HVE certification reach the 50,000 certified who are targeted for 2030? After years of double-digit growth, the certified population has plateaued below 40,000 farms since January 2023 and the implementation of the label's new criticized benchmark.
A fourth version which hardly enchants with its constraints, while the farms labeled under the third version of 2016 remain certified until January 1, 2025 and the current false plan could tip into a sharp decline. The lack of promotion of environmental efforts weighing on producers (which is found with other labels) as well as the absence of promotion to the general public (public aid being limited to a tax credit). It must be said that the HVE label remains in the media crosshairs, whether on television with Hugo Clément in 2023 or on newsstands with 60 million consumers this return. As if the label ended up seeming to be a regression rather than a progression compared to the expectations projected by those who swear only by the organic model. A binary vision that winegrowers refute, not being the last to combine both certifications.
The future of HVE remains to be written, see you in six months to find out if the current HVE 3 will pass to HVE 4 tomorrow.
