Vila Real, Portugal, July 27, 2026 (Lusa) - Winegrowers in northern Portugal's Douro region are calling for urgent government intervention to resolve the economic crisis they are facing after receiving letters cancelling orders for grapes, a source at Casa do Douro told Lusa on Monday.
«We have now been confronted, at this time of year, by the companies to whom we sell our grapes, who either do not want any grapes at all, or only want those intended for Port wine, without any price having been agreed yet. In other words, we have a crop that will practically remain in the vineyard, because at the moment nobody wants grapes,» Marinete Alves, a member of the Casa do Douro Regional Council, told Lusa.
According to the winegrower, there are producers in the Douro Demarcated Region (RDD) who will begin harvesting grapes intended for sparkling wine as early as the beginning of August.
«We've contacted other companies to find out if they want grapes, and the answer we're getting is no – they only want grapes intended for Port wine, which is their main source of income; apart from that, nobody wants any more grapes. The winegrowers are in a completely catastrophic situation; they are desperate, because they have spent a year's worth of work and all their income, and now have no way of recouping it,» she emphasised.
Marinete Alves also warned of the «total economic unsustainability of the winegrowers».
«The trade has us in its economic grip, because we have no other way of selling our produce except through the organisations that buy our grapes. We've reached this stage of the harvest, and they're telling us they don't want the grapes and have prevented us from trying to establish other commercial relationships. It's a complete stranglehold on the winegrower, a suffocation,» she asserted.
According to the organiser of the 2024 petition «Save the Douro winegrowers», which gathered 2,600 signatures, two of the reasons given by exporters for refusing to buy grapes are excess stock and a shortage of product.
«The reason they give is that they cannot sell their wine, that they have too much stock, but this is a contradiction, [because] they have increased Port production by a thousand barrels. Then they say we do not have enough grapes in the region for the production of brandy and wine, yet we have a surplus of grapes, [which] will be left in the vineyard. There is a trade monopoly in which winegrowers are under brutal economic dependence and we simply do what they want», she reiterated.
Faced with this situation, winegrowers are calling for urgent government intervention in the region.
«We are on the cusp of [yet another] grape harvest; there is an urgent need for the Government to adopt the recommendation of the Juntos Pelo Povo (JPP) party, approved by parliament [on 17 July], which allows grapes intended for distillation to be purchased at a minimum of €0.90,» she emphasised.
According to the winegrower, although the average production cost is €1.50, the €0.90 proposed by the JPP resolution – which does not have the force of law, but constitutes a recommendation to the government – would help winegrowers to cover their costs until «structural measures are taken in the region».
«At the moment, to prevent the grapes from being left hanging on the vines, [we want] the Government to adopt and endorse this draft resolution. This is an extremely urgent appeal,» she argued.
She also added that the Fight for the Douro Association had requested a meeting with the country's president, «so that he is made aware of the situation and can, in some way, urge the Government to take an immediate and urgent decision for the region».
The RDD will turn a total of 76,000 barrels of must into Port wine this harvest, 1,000 more than last year, as decided by the IVDP's inter-professional council on 17 July.
Each barrel of Port wine can represent an average of €1,000 paid to winegrowers, with this income being one of the main sources of revenue for producers in the Douro region.
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