Many California growers can’t find buyers as the industry produces more wine grapes than the market wants. Wine consumption is declining globally as people drink less.
It’s harvest time in California wine country, but many growers are struggling to sell their grapes as changing drinking habits have caused demand to plunge. The decline is forcing some growers to tear out vineyards that their families have grown for generations.
Wine sales have decreased by more than 20% over a five-year period, causing prices paid for grapes to drop and prompting California growers to take roughly a quarter of the state’s vineyards out of production. Many growers are having to decide whether to harvest at a loss, leave grapes on the vine or replace vineyards with crops more in demand such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives.
Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.
Tariffs have reduced exports, particularly to Canada, which was the largest foreign buyer of American wine.
Uh sure, it was the tariffs, and not the widespread Canadian boycott of American alcohol.
Wasn’t the boycott because of the tariffs?
I picked up a bag of grapes in the store on the weekend. Product of the USA, nope. We avoid USA products as much as possible. Sorry to the good Americans.
wine grapes are different varieties than eating grapes. Just like cider apples.
No need to apologize. The whole American farming industry needs a redo anyway.
Well, I think it was our tariffs that contributed to the Canadian tariffs and also contributed to anti-US sentiment, so it’s sort of truthy. heh
I used to accidentally buy some California wine every now and then when not paying attention and grabbing a selection, it was never that good.
Since trump 2.0 now i check everything to make sure it’s not American. This isn’t really surprising news
Grapes are almost $9 a pound. These motherfuckers are out of their mind. A bag of grapes is $15 fucking dollars
My wife is doing her part to keep that demand up.
Well, the usual "free market"bullshit would dictate that the price drops until it finds enough demand again. But thanks to whatever bull shit system we currently have the price stays the same and they just write off everything that doesn’t sell and they throw it away.
And the smell of rot fills the country.
Steinbeck 1939
Wait until “it” happens and wine sales will go through the roof!
You Jinxed us! Don’t you know any time anyone ever mentions “it”, nothing ever happens??
Seems pretty obvious to me to convert it to food. World needs calories.
The world does not have a shortage of calories. The world has a shortage of getting food to the people who need it, but so so so much food is thrown away. Wine grapes would be incredibly low on the list to try and save. What would help far more is stepping in to help cut down on food waste and increase processes to get food from where it is to the people that do need it.
And fix wealth inequality.
Might have been more true in the past but with wars and droughts and crazy weather, well you can see the effect on food prices.
Food prices are not rising out of scarcity of food.
Every single famine or other food shortage that happens these days is a policy choice. We don’t have to sacrifice to Ceres anymore to ensure a good harvest.
We’ve had mechanized agriculture and on-demand global trade for over a century now.
Even with climate change, food is expensive right now because of things like the War in Ukraine (produces about 20% of the world’s grain and 30% of the world’s sunflower oil) making it difficult to distribute the food that people are still growing in Ukraine.
See my links in other comments.
If they’re lucky, growers can sell their uncontracted grapes at a loss to buyers making concentrated syrup.
Part of the problem being ridiculous contracts that prevent the grapes from being sold or given away even if the person who contracted them decides they don’t want the grapes
Not that knowledgable but I think wine grapes don’t make good food. What I meant is that you convert the land to grow something else.
Shouldn’t have voted for an orange clown then. Oh well.
French wine is also in decline.
I like Bota Breeze for lower alcohol and cost efficient, something easy to enjoy with healthy home cooked food! Less or no alcohol is good trend to see for our health.
Make Rakija, not war.
You are allowed to grow cannabis and hemp instead. it grows right out of the dirt! It’s crazy
Also, please be advised that you can grow a large variety of fruits and vegetables. CHECK IT OUT
Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.
Learn to code, Bill.
… oh wait
I actually like wine, and weed fucks with my heart rate.
Wine is a terrible waste of grapes anyway.
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Where’s that darn duck when you need him?
