France Is Spending a Lot of Money to Destroy Wine

Craft beer is a lot more popular than it used to be in France, and the change in drinking habits is among the factors that have left the country with a massive surplus of wine. Some $215 million is being spent to destroy surplus wine and turn the alcohol into products including hand sanitizer and perfume, the BBC reports. Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said Friday the French government is adding $43 million to a $172 million European Union fund for wine destruction, France24 reports. Fesneau said the move is "aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that wine-makers can find sources of revenue again."

Money is also being spent to help growers rip up vineyards and switch to products including olives. The wine industry has been hit by what the BBC calls a "cocktail of problems," including overproduction and the cost-of-living crisis in France, which has forced people to cut back on spending. In France and other European countries, beer consumption is rising as consumption of wine and spirits. With the rise of craft beer in France, the country has gone from having 246 breweries in 2006 to almost 2,000 now, mostly in the country's northeast, per Connexion.

When it approved emergency aid for the sector, the EU estimated that wine consumption was down 10% for the year in Spain, 15% in France, and a shocking 34% in Portugal, per France24. Production across the bloc, however, had risen 4%. The EU reformed its agricultural subsidies program almost 20 years after overproduction led to a surplus dubbed the "wine lake." (More France stories.)