French winemakers pour gallons of booze on streets in protest over cheap imports

19 October 2023 , 21:28

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Dramatic photos captured the wine flowing into the street (Image: GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Furious French winemakers destroyed several shipments of cheap Spanish booze as they intercepted trucks and poured gallons of alcohol over the road in a protest at the drink being imported from another country.

Demonstrators at Le Boulou tollbooth even targeted Spanish tomatoes and created a blaze burning tyres that led to such thick smoke the fire service came to put it out. Waves of wine poured along the tarmac and one man even brought a sledgehammer to crack open containers in his rage at low-priced imports threatening the French wine industry.

Frederic Rouanet, who organised the protest as the president of a local winemaker group, declared ‘economic war’ on his enemies. He said the cheap imports were the product of ‘economic criminals who abused ruined winegrowers’ and added: “We are going to take away the possibility of being able to import foreign wines.”

Huge flames engulfed the road with smoke after protesters burnt tyres (GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Despite the dramatic scenes today (October 19) leading to a roaring fire, countless destroyed drinks and glass shattered across the road, the protesters have so far been mainly left alone by police, French newspaper reports. The chaos unfolded after trade unions met to discuss the threats posed by cheap imports coming from across the border amid tough times for French winemakers with plummeting prices and falling sales.

There is so much unsold wine across the country the French government even announced a plan to spend £170 million on the unwanted excess, which will be destroyed. Agricultural minister Marc Fesneau said it aimed to stop prices collapsing so they can ‘find sources of revenue again’ but admitted the industry needed to ‘adapt and look to the future’.

'I stopped drinking booze on dates and it made life much more exciting'

Remarkably, the fiery protest isn’t the first time the French have taken extreme measures to protest against the cheap imports. In 2016, Spanish trucks were stopped in a different location in France and subjected to a similar attack. Raging winemakers emptied four tankers and poured 70,000 litres away and graffitied ‘not compliant’ on trucks in an argument over European regulations.

Jake Loader