French winemakers today intercepted trucks carrying cheap Spanish booze and smashed crates of it all over the road.
Le Boulou toll, just ten miles from the French border Spainturned into a battlefield this morning when dozens of protesting winegrowers stopped trucks and swept away their contents.
They destroyed several shipments of wine, smashing bottles and spilling the red drink all over the tarmac in an epochal demonstration of the French public’s penchant for protesting against perceived injustices.
Countless liters of white wine and bubbly were also spilled, with shocking footage from the scene depicting crates upon crates of bottles littering the scene.
One enraged vintner jumped into a truck with a sledgehammer, swinging the tool violently at the wine crates, while others turned on a truck’s faucet, releasing a torrent of red that drenched the road.
Another group of protesters piled up tomato crates and tires to make a makeshift bonfire.
Frederic Rouanet, president of a local winegrowers’ union which organized the protest, said the demonstration was part of the “economic war against economic criminals who abuse the ruined winegrowers”, before adding: “We are going to remove the possibility of being able to import foreign wines.’
It remains to be seen whether Rouanet’s wine-soaked manifesto will come to fruition, but so far the repercussions of the protest appear to be minimal, as the disgruntled growers were mostly left alone by the police, according to the French newspaper. Vitisphere.
Winegrowers unload wine from a truck during a roadblock demonstration to protest against Spanish alcohol imports
Winegrowers destroy wine bottles on the motorway at the Le Boulou tollgate near the Spanish border
Protesters destroyed several shipments of wine by breaking the bottles (pictured) and spilling the wine onto the road
A disgruntled winegrower destroys bottles of wine with a hammer
Another protester turned on a truck’s faucet, releasing a torrent of red wine that drenched the road.
Another group of protesters piled up tomato crates and tires to make a makeshift bonfire
The protesters broke several boxes of Freixenet bottles
Some even skipped the Spanish sparkling wine, leaving the road drenched in alcohol and foam.
After a lorry’s tab was opened, liters of red wine spilled onto the road
Smoke billows from a makeshift bonfire on the asphalt
Demonstrators fall over crates of Freixenet wine, which crash into puddles of white wine and foam as they hit the road
In the videos published on X, the protesters can be seen falling over a mountain of boxes with Freixenet wine.
Many of the boxes had been turned upside down, so that their valuable contents spilled out onto the road. Bottles upon bottles of bubbly were seen rolling in a sea of broken glass and wasted booze.
Protesters then took the crushed remains of the crates and added them to a pile of hundreds of cardboard boxes containing Spanish tomatoes, before setting the whole lot on fire.
Some threw even more boxes into the flames, while others somehow managed to get hold of a batch of tires, the rubber of which caused a serious fire that sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.
A couple of fire engines later descended on the scene to douse the inferno.
Before the protest escalated, a delegation of winegrowers from different unions and local unions met to discuss cheap Spanish imports that threaten to put French winegrowers out of business.
This fiery demonstration was launched just two months after French media reported in August that the government is ready to pour millions of liters of wine, and will even uproot vines.
The move comes as part of an attempt to reverse falling prices amid falling sales. Wine production has continued to rise in France, leading to an excess of unsold wine which, in turn, has caused prices to fall.
Main wine producing regions, especially the famous Bordeaux area Francethey are fighting
The French government has announced a £170 million plan to buy large quantities of the surplus, which will be destroyed.
The alcohol content will be recycled to make hand sanitizer, cleaning products or perfume.
Winegrowers in the south of France are asking for more financial help after harsh weather conditions affected the vintage
Protesters also set a pile of tires on fire, which sent black smoke into the air and could be seen from several miles away.
They also piled hundreds of cardboard boxes with Spanish tomatoes and set them on fire
Demonstrators this morning stopped several trucks importing wines from Spain at the Boulou toll gate, near the southern border between France and Spain.
Some threw more and more boxes into the flames, which quickly turned into gray smoke rising several meters high.
The protesters emptied the truck and threw the boxes of tomatoes on the road
Protesters even picked up individual packets of tomatoes and smashed them on the ground
French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said the fund was “aimed at stopping the collapse of prices and so that wine producers can find sources of income again”.
But he stressed that the sector must “look to the future, think about consumer changes… and adapt”.
Figures from the European Commission say wine consumption for the current year is estimated to have fallen by 15% in France, 7% in Italy, 10% in Spain and a staggering 34% in Portugal.
However, production in the EU has increased by 4 percent.
The commission said the most affected areas were the red and rosé producing regions of France, Spain and Portugal.
Given this surprising saturation of the market, Spanish importers are trying to beat their French competition by offering cheaper prices, which threatens the livelihoods of many French winegrowers.
But this is not the first time that French winegrowers have demonstrated against cheap imports by destroying wine.
French producers have been furious that their traditional rivals in Spain, as well as Italy, are exporting hundreds of millions of liters of wine at cut-price prices that have threatened their livelihoods for years.
Dozens took to the streets of Le Boulou in 2016, stopped Spanish tankers and then emptied their wine onto the roads in a very similar protest.
Rouanet confirmed at the time that four tankers were emptied, with 70,000 liters of wine wasted.
His fellow demonstrators scrawled graffiti on the side of the Spanish trucks, with slogans such as “wine does not fulfill”.
They argued that Spanish wine was substandard and not produced in accordance with European regulations.
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