Six years of Rioja grapes paid 16.5% under cost
ARAG-ASAJA says growers received €0.722/kg against a €0.864/kg cost from 2020 to 2025. A model 10 hectares is €38,227 in the hole. A 2027 vine-removal scheme is still only a sketch.
Six campaigns. The books at the cellar can look tidy while the grower’s books do not.
On 27 August ARAG-ASAJA in La Rioja said so in one line. President Eduardo Pérez and secretary-general Igor Fonseca: balancing a bodega’s accounts by unbalancing the grower’s does not fix Rioja’s crisis.
The union’s average for 2020–25: it cost €0.864 to produce a kilo of grapes. Growers were paid €0.722. That is 14.3 cents under cost, about 16.5% of the cost itself.
On a model 10 hectares, the hole is €38,227 across six campaigns. Hundreds of growers are leaving, and not only into retirement. Older growers have been filing complaints on the Consejo’s portal.
They want the Food Chain Law applied with more bite, and multi-year contracts signed before harvest, not after the fruit is already in the yard.
A voluntary vine-removal scheme for 2027 is still a sketch. The ministry turned down FEAGA money. The La Rioja and Basque governments say they will put in their own funds if the legal tools exist. No regulation is published yet, so there is no application window.
Mini-concept: a cellar can close its year while the row that fed it stays underwater.
A flavoured can has no grower ledger. These 10 hectares ran €38,227 under water across six campaigns.
Remember: €0.864/kg cost vs €0.722/kg paid, six years running.
Source: Europa Press