More than one country (France in particular) is worrying about the economic future of its winemaking sector; it’s a worldwide concern… Beyond what might be called “normal” economic losses, due to lockdown measures, it must above all be hoped that this crisis does not bring about “new” consumer habits and a complete break with pre-Covid societal norms. One rather worrying, but logical, example is that of French boulangeries. They are still allowed to make and sell their bread; however, the lockdown has caused a hitherto unheard of (even in wartime!) situation: the French have begun making bread at home… The art of breadmaking is not simple – there is an undeniable know-how involved in making a successful loaf. Apart from a shortage of flour across the country, those finding that lockdown is “boring them to tears,” to put it bluntly, have time to cook, albeit badly, and to perfect their technique… until the day they say to themselves: “Why buy a mass-produced baguette from the local franchise bakery, which isn’t even a real artisan one, when I can make much better bread at home…”
In this process of reappropriation bordering on survivalist instincts, there is a whole list of things that “can be done at home.” Although wine is rather complicated to make at home, that’s not the case with craft beer, which is “proliferating:” we’ve lost count of the microbreweries that were already worrying the lawmakers, as well as a whole economy previously reserved for large industrial groups. Consumption of the French national symbol (along with cheese and the baguette) was already waning; let’s hope “Covid” doesn’t turn every citizen into an apartment grocer, turning their living rooms into breweries, their kitchens into bakeries, the children’s bedroom into a meat smoker, the hall into a vegetable patch, and the bathroom into a camembert fermentation plant.
https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news/sa-produce-wine-exporters-fear-lockdown-losses-47010215
