Is the Valencian Community a land of wines? The president of the Agrifood Cooperatives of the Valencian Community, Cirilo Arnandis, said yesterday that "at many times in history we have been the main community in volume of wine production, but we have known how to evolve and look for added value to win in quality and compete in the markets".
Yesterday, the Interprofessional of Wine of Spain and International Financial Analysts (AFI) presented in Valencia the study The economic and social importance of the wine sector in the Valencian Community. In it they state that the production of wines is responsible for 1.7% of the GDP of the Valencian Community and generates a gross added value of more than 1,885 million euros per year, of which 55% (about 1,040 million euros) correspond a direct contribution from the sector.
The analysis counts 141 wineries in the Valencian Community, which produce wine thanks to the grapes collected in 62,796 hectares of vineyards that supply a total of 188 Valencian towns, more than 35% of the Valencian municipalities.
"Its importance is more evident in towns with less than 30,000 inhabitants, whose population has increased by 16.2% in the last 20 years", well above the growth registered in municipalities where there is no vineyard, as pointed out the president of the Interprofessional of the Wine of Spain (OIVE), Ángel Villafranca.
The president of OIVE has also highlighted that viticulture contributes to generating 32,160 full-time jobs in the Valencian Community, 19,437 winegrowers, settled especially in inland areas, which accounts for its importance as "fixer of the population to the territory" .
The General Director of Rural Development of the Generalitat Valenciana, David Torres, also spoke about the relevance of the sector, who highlighted that this "is one of the most important sectors in the region, since it contributes to solving problems that we have, especially in the countryside. , such as generational change and depopulation”.
For his part, the director of Economy of AFI, Diego Vizcaíno, has highlighted that the wine sector of the Valencian Community "has been registering, in recent years, a sustained trade surplus, which shows that it is capable of competing in international markets. ”.
In a few years very marked by the pandemic, added Francisco Javier Arcis, director of Agrobank in the Valencian Community, "we have experienced consumption differentials that we have been able to overcome by giving a boost to exports, which have grown by 20% in the last year, and also do it with greater value”.
