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CNN Live At Daybreak
Grape Glut Forcing Some Vineyards to Take Drastic Steps
Aired November 17, 2003 - 05:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a good season for the nation's wine lovers. California wine prices are down. And good low priced wines are streaming in from overseas, which is probably a reason that the California wine prices are down.
But as CNN's Jen Rogers shows us, the recent grape glut is forcing some vineyards to take even more drastic steps.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last month, this was a vineyard. Now, it's a statistic, part of an estimated 60,000 acres of vines California wine growers have ripped out.
CHESTER ANDREW, ANDREW FARMS: They were viable vineyards that we pulled out. No problem with the production. The problem was with price.
ROGERS: While consumers are snapping up cheap wine, like Charles Shaw, best known as two buck Chuck, farmers in California's central valley, which produces 40 percent of the state's wine, are finding it hard to make a buck.
NAT DIBUDUO, PRESIDENT, ALLIED GRAPE GROWERS: This has probably been the largest, the deepest downturn that we've seen in the industry.
ROGERS: Grape prices have plummeted more than 60 percent in the last three years, depressed by over supply in California and around the world, creating a hangover of painful proportions.
ANDREW: Last year in the grape industry, our family lost at least a million dollars, at least a million dollars.
ROGERS: Chester Andrew, a fifth generation farmer in California's central valley, has taken out 25 percent of his grapes in the last two seasons because they're simply unprofitable.
(on camera): Just to give you an idea of how tough times are for growers in the central valley, this vineyard here used to produce grapes two years ago that sold for $300 a ton. This year, those same grapes sold for $90 a ton.
(voice-over): It was like holding a tech stock during the dot- com bust.
ANDREW: We shook our heads, my gosh, it can't be that low. ROGERS: With prices below farmers' production costs in many cases, growers are forced to make some tough decisions.
RICH CARTIERE, WINE MARKET REPORT: For the first time in probably 30 years, you're seeing people pull vineyards out or just let them go fallow, just let them, you know, lay there without picking the grapes.
ROGERS: For Andrew, it's been a painful lesson in supply and demand. His solution? Replanting his fields with almond trees. The risk? That almonds will become the next crop to ride the all too familiar boom-bust cycle.
Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Madera, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 17, 2003 - 05:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a good season for the nation's wine lovers. California wine prices are down. And good low priced wines are streaming in from overseas, which is probably a reason that the California wine prices are down.
But as CNN's Jen Rogers shows us, the recent grape glut is forcing some vineyards to take even more drastic steps.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last month, this was a vineyard. Now, it's a statistic, part of an estimated 60,000 acres of vines California wine growers have ripped out.
CHESTER ANDREW, ANDREW FARMS: They were viable vineyards that we pulled out. No problem with the production. The problem was with price.
ROGERS: While consumers are snapping up cheap wine, like Charles Shaw, best known as two buck Chuck, farmers in California's central valley, which produces 40 percent of the state's wine, are finding it hard to make a buck.
NAT DIBUDUO, PRESIDENT, ALLIED GRAPE GROWERS: This has probably been the largest, the deepest downturn that we've seen in the industry.
ROGERS: Grape prices have plummeted more than 60 percent in the last three years, depressed by over supply in California and around the world, creating a hangover of painful proportions.
ANDREW: Last year in the grape industry, our family lost at least a million dollars, at least a million dollars.
ROGERS: Chester Andrew, a fifth generation farmer in California's central valley, has taken out 25 percent of his grapes in the last two seasons because they're simply unprofitable.
(on camera): Just to give you an idea of how tough times are for growers in the central valley, this vineyard here used to produce grapes two years ago that sold for $300 a ton. This year, those same grapes sold for $90 a ton.
(voice-over): It was like holding a tech stock during the dot- com bust.
ANDREW: We shook our heads, my gosh, it can't be that low. ROGERS: With prices below farmers' production costs in many cases, growers are forced to make some tough decisions.
RICH CARTIERE, WINE MARKET REPORT: For the first time in probably 30 years, you're seeing people pull vineyards out or just let them go fallow, just let them, you know, lay there without picking the grapes.
ROGERS: For Andrew, it's been a painful lesson in supply and demand. His solution? Replanting his fields with almond trees. The risk? That almonds will become the next crop to ride the all too familiar boom-bust cycle.
Jen Rogers, CNN Financial News, Madera, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
