Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FARMING

Italy’s wine production falls by nine percent after year of extreme weather

Italian wine production dropped by nine percent in 2021, new figures show, as winemakers across the country continue to suffer the effects of extreme weather.

Published: 5 November 2021 17:42 CET
Italy’s wine production dropped by nine percent in 2021
Italy’s wine production dropped by nine percent in 2021. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

According to the latest preliminary figures published by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) and shared by the agricultural association Coldiretti, global wine production is also set to drop to 250.3 million hectoliters in 2021, seven percent below the average for the past 20 years.

This is the third consecutive year that the world’s total wine production will fall below average levels, highlights Coldiretti, with the 2021 harvest just above an all-time low of 2017.

The OIV shared its data at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, where world leaders are currently meeting to discuss strategies to combat the effects of the climate crisis.

READ ALSO: Hundreds of youth activists protest climate inaction ahead of Milan summit

Harvesters lift a box full of Nebbiolo grapes, which are used to make Barolo wine, in Barolo, northwestern Italy on October 18, 2018.

Harvesters lift a box full of Nebbiolo grapes, which are used to make Barolo wine, in Barolo, northwestern Italy on October 18, 2018. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

The drop in production levels is down to “late spring frosts and overall unfavourable weather conditions” linked to climate change, Coldiretti said in a press release on Thursday.

Extreme heatwaves, forest fires, hurricanes, floods and storms have battered Italy throughout 2021, damaging crops and creating havoc for farmers.

In October the country was hit by 20 severe weather events in one day, including tornadoes, hailstorms, windstorms, and torrential rainfall that caused damage to cities and countryside across the peninsula.

READ ALSO: Italy hit by 20 ‘severe weather events’ in a day as Liguria sees record rainfall

A man drives a vehicle through a field of Nebbiolo grapes during the harvest in the Langhe countryside in Barolo, northwestern Italy on October 18, 2018.

A man drives a vehicle through a field of Nebbiolo grapes during the harvest in the Langhe countryside in Barolo, northwestern Italy on October 18, 2018. MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP

The storms “devastated fields, pastures, stables and agricultural vehicles as well as blocking roads and causing landslides and landslides in the countryside,” Coldiretti said.

The group estimated that Italy’s agricultural industry has lost €2 billion so far this year as a result of extreme weather events.

Despite the hit to its wine production levels, Italy remains the largest producer of wines globally, followed by Spain and then France.

READ ALSO: Italian wine production drops sharply after year of extreme weather

France’s wine producers have reportedly suffered particularly bad losses in 2021, seeing a 27 percent reduction in its harvest compared to 2020 following a year of severe frosts, summer rains, hailstorms and diseases.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ENVIRONMENT

Sweden’s SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

Published: 2 April 2024 13:44 CEST
Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: 

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa. 

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology. 

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces. 

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

SHOW COMMENTS