The Portuguese Minister of Agriculture, Maria do Céu Antunes Albuquerque, approved the strengthening of the crisis measures package to support the wine sector to 18 million euros. Therefore, it will be possible to spend from 10 to 12 million euros for the distillation measure and from 5 to 6 million euros for storage.

In addition, the unit amounts of support foreseen in Ordinance 148-A / 2020 of June 19 will be reinforced. Regarding crisis distillation, the values ​​range from € 0.40 / l to € 0.60 / l for wines with designation of origin and € 0.30 / l to € 0.45 / l for wines . wines with a geographical indication. An increase was also approved for regions with viticulture in the mountainous area of ​​€ 0.15 / l and € 0.20 / l, respectively.

As for the wine storage measure, the unit value is doubled, from € 0.08 per day / hl to € 0.16 per day / hl and the maximum amount per beneficiary from € 7,500 to € 15,000. These measures are part of the National Support Program for fiscal year 2020 EAGF.

The holder of the Agriculture portfolio also announced the increase in the amount of the Qualitative Reserve of Porto, which now amounts to 5 million euros. This increase in allocation will be presented to the production and trade representatives on the IVDP Interprofessional Council, with whom Maria do Céu Antunes Albuquerque has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

This reinforcement of the exceptional support measures for the wine sector results from a meeting with the organs of the Ministry, namely the IVV and the IVDP, where the result of the measures approved by Ordinance 148-A / 2020 of 19 June, as well as the impact of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the wine sector.

The Minister of Agriculture said that "we are attentive to the evolution of the situation and, the holders of updated data on the situation that we knew in June, when the first proposal was presented, this reinforcement now presented goes in the direction of responding to help mitigating the effects of this crisis. Therefore, the aim is to minimize breakage and guarantee the performance of winegrowers ".

It should also be noted that in the last Council of Ministers, the Decree Law was approved, which reviews the institutional organization of the wine sector and the respective legal regime, as well as the regime for the recognition of interprofessional organizations in the wine sector and the respective instruments of self-regulation.

Maria do Céu Antunes Albuquerque participates today, July 20, in Brussels, in the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries, to propose the maintenance, by 2021, of the exceptional measures adopted to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.