FRESNO, United States, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- California grape growers are facing their most challenging season in three decades, with many producers leaving fruit unharvested or abandoning their vineyards due to a significant decline in demand and increasing economic pressures, according to an industry leader.
"It has happened before, but this is the worst I've ever seen it, and I've been doing this almost 30 years," said Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, a cooperative marketing association representing some 500 members in California, told Xinhua in an interview.
"A lot of grapes won't get purchased or harvested or crushed" throughout the state, making the crush size much smaller this year, said Bitter, a fourth-generation grape grower in Madera County, central California.
For many producers, the uncertainty began at the start of this growing year, he said.
"They had no prospects for selling their grapes, and instead of investing money all year long into growing a crop that you don't know whether or not you can sell, a lot of growers just decided to walk away from those vineyards and not farm them at all," he said.
For those still tending their vines, survival has become an overriding concern. "They're not really worried about too many other things right now other than surviving," Bitter said. "When you can't even sell your crop, that becomes your only priority in life."
Wine sales in the United States dropped by about 6 percent last year, according to data released in June by the industry group SipSource. This decline is part of a longer-term trend of falling wine demand in restaurants, bars and stores, one that some industry experts are now describing as an "existential threat" to the sector.
Bitter cited several factors behind the downturn, including reciprocal trade measures, weakening consumer demand and an inventory glut.
Higher import costs on Chinese and European-made goods have already hurt local wine producers. The industry relies on glass bottles created in China or Mexico, corks made in Portugal, wine barrels produced in France and Hungary, and paper labels printed overseas.
Rather than using foreign-made products with expensive tariffs, local winemakers could switch to American glass, but options are limited and expensive.
Moreover, the unilateral tariffs imposed by the Trump administration face countermeasures from its traditional trade partners.
"You have to realize that tariffs are very reciprocal in nature," he said. "For example, when Canada was not happy about their aluminum and timber tariffs that the United States was slapping on them, they retaliated by saying they're not going to any longer put American alcohol on their store shelves. We were just there minding our own business, and all of a sudden, we get hurt by this retaliatory tariff action."
He said that tariff and trade policy should be "administered very carefully" so that "we do not open ourselves up to being discriminated against on a global basis."
Beyond trade, shifting consumer patterns have also contributed to the downturn, said Bitter. "We've definitely seen a drop in demand and wine shipments over the last three years. People are drinking less alcohol, period."
Younger drinkers appear less inclined toward wine, while cost pressures weigh on household budgets, he said. "Wine is relatively expensive, compared to other alcohol products like beer or spirits, and then, the economics of the consumer are such that it's very challenging for people to spend that extra disposable dollar on alcohol, or on wine in particular."
The "inventory bubble" also contributed to the industry headwinds, Bitter said. With excess wine in tanks, bottles, and on store shelves, wineries and processors are unlikely to buy more grapes, leading to fruit being left unpurchased and on the vine.
While other sectors like corn or soybeans affected by tariffs may receive assistance, Bitter said wine grape growers have a limited safety net because most government programs are not designed to support specialty crops in California.
He urged policymakers to avoid blunt trade measures and consider targeted approaches.
"I don't like the idea of just slapping blanket tariffs across the board on people," he said. "There needs to be targeted trade policy and not just this blanket policy that affects multiple countries and multiple industries, because at the end of the day, that doesn't really do anything to help people who need the most help." ■