Confederation to triple marketing for Swiss wine

On Thursday, the Council approved a corresponding motion of its Committee for Economic Affairs and Taxation (WAK-N) by 98 votes to 61 with 22 abstentions. The picture on the electronic voting board was exceptionally colorful and not very compact. There were both yes and no votes as well as abstentions from practically all groups. The matter goes to the Council of States. Currently, the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) supports the promotion of Swiss wine with 2.8 million Swiss francs annually. In the Corona years 2020 and 2021, it spent an additional million francs as emergency aid for concrete projects in the gastronomy and at the wholesalers. However, the FOAG wants to reduce this additional emergency aid by 200,000 francs for the current year and to cancel it completely from 2023.

High marketing pressure from Italy

Commission spokesman Markus Ritter (center/SG) justified the demand for a significant increase in the federal contribution to nine million Swiss francs per year with the great marketing pressure from abroad, especially from Italy. The neighboring country to the south costs the Swiss market 18 million francs in terms of marketing. Therefore, Swiss wines need a level playing field. The entire value chain in Switzerland is prepared to provide the necessary funds for half of the co-financing. A total of 18 million would then be available to bring Swiss wine to the people in terms of marketing. This is also important because there is practically no border protection for Swiss wine anymore, says Ritter. Olivier Feller (FDP/VD) added that the increase in marketing contributions was also completely justifiable in terms of regulatory policy. It is not a direct subsidy of the winegrowers. According to the Federal Council and the Commission minority, the acceptance of the motion would lead to an unequal treatment of the wine industry compared to the other agricultural branches. This would create a disproportion to the economic importance of wine compared to other agricultural products, said Guy Parmelin, Minister of Economy.

Lack of overall view

Kathrin Bertschy (GLP/BE) asked in vain on behalf of the commission minority to handle the federal budget responsibly. After all, the motion would triple sales promotion. No other industry enjoys such a high level of marketing support. This could awaken further desires. It would be better to finally discuss agricultural policy as a whole seriously and align it sustainably. Moreover, the linkage of the sales promotion with sustainability and quality criteria demanded in the proposal would make the business even more complex, which would make an implementation difficult in practice, the Federal Council stated in its written answer to the proposal. Neither in viticulture nor for the entire food chain of the wine industry is there a general sustainability standard today. (SDA)