"I agree with the minister and with the identification of the problem, but I would prefer that, if there is to be a brake, it should be applied to imports," said the head of this wine commission, in statements to the Lusa agency.

Still on the subject of the interview given by the Minister of Agriculture, José Manuel Fernandes, to the newspaper Público, Francisco Mateus presented new data on the issue of 'stocks' raised by the government official.

In the interview, the Minister of Agriculture warned about the 'stock' of unsold wine and argued that "there will have to be a brake" on support for new vineyard plantings.

The new government official questioned whether financial resources are being provided to plant vineyards that will later be uprooted or for the wine to be distilled, adding that, to date, 60 million euros have already been spent on distillation.

For the president of the CVRA, José Manuel Fernandes "is making a realistic interpretation of the current context" and of the identification of "'stock' as the main problem", but warned that "the core of the issue should not be limited to the vineyard".

"To understand the 'stock' problem, it helps us if the analysis also considers the evolution of production and imports, on the one hand, and exports and sales in the national market, on the other," he pointed out.

Using data from the Institute of Vine and Wine (IVV), Francisco Mateus indicated that, on average over the last five years, compared to the previous five, the vineyard area decreased by around 10 thousand hectares and production increased by 52 million liters per year.

"We produce a greater quantity per hectare, and the effect of Vitis (Support Regime for the Reconversion and Restructuring of Vineyards) is visible, which contributes to making vineyards more competitive and, it is true, also more productive, but we are talking about an additional 441 liters per hectare per year," he said.

On the other hand, imports, according to the official, "grew at an average rate of 83 million liters per year, which, added to the 52 million liter increase in production, adds 135 million liters to availability".

"In the last five years, sales in exports and in the national market resulted in an additional 35 million liters," pointed out Francisco Mateus, on the other hand, noting that the national market data consider Nielsen statistics, which "do not cover all sales, so the actual number will be higher".

According to the president of the CVRA, the difference between what is produced and what is exported and sold in the national market, which amounts to 17 million liters, "is easily absorbed by sales that are not covered by the statistics and by other uses, such as distillation and vinegar production".

"The substantial increase in imports in recent years has brought an average of 83 million more liters per year to the sector, which in five years means an additional 400 million liters of wine," he added.

As for Vitis, the official considered that it is "an important tool for, for example, the sector to reconvert grape varieties, using those that are more adapted to climatic conditions".

"But it can also be used for the introduction of advanced sustainable production systems, which is recommended, but which we are still not doing in force in our country, which justifies the initiation of a reorientation debate on the activities covered by Vitis support," he concluded.

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