Stockpile means Sodap not taking any grapes this year

Wine cooperative Sodap will not be receiving any grapes this year due to its large stocks, acting director Michalis Solonos announced on Friday.

Solonos told the Cyprus News Agency that the board of directors has decided that the organisation will not be accepting additional quantities of grapes for the year.

Unfortunately, he said, “it is not possible because there are no places to buy grapes that can be turned into wine, due to the stocks that have arisen as a result of the socio-economic anomaly of recent years,” spurred on by the pandemic and the war in Russia, among others.

Sodap currently has six million litres of grape juice in its tanks and sells an estimate of two million litres of wine yearly, he explained, pointing out that this is the first time since 1947 that it will not be receiving any grapes.

Because of this, winegrowers who have not proceeded with green harvesting this year will be affected as they will be left with all the grapes.

He also noted that due to the weather conditions and downy mildew, there will not be so much good production that will remain unused by the small wineries at least.

Asked whether some efforts were made to receive a small quantity, Solonos replied that some proposals had been submitted for the receipt of small quantities, but Sodap, which is a cooperative, cannot discriminate between winegrowers or its members by only accepting grapes from some.

Therefore, the decision taken was that there will be no pickup, he said, sadly concluding that the damages from the situation will burden winegrowers and those who have not participated in the state’s plan for green harvesting,

Referring to the problems faced by Sodap’s wine industry, Solonos said that the biggest problem is the free trade of wine imports by companies that channel bad quality product into the Cypriot market, which is cheap and ends up beating Cypriot wine, impacting Cypriot winegrowers.