Organic Wine

Chris Huhne
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the (a) value, (b) output and (c) growth rate of the UK organic wine industry in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement.

Barry Gardiner
Owing to technical labelling rules, the EC Regulations do not recognise Organic Wine as such but only recognise Wine Produced from Organically Grown Grapes. There is currently discussion at a European level in relation to amending these rules.

DEFRA has made no assessment of the value, output and growth rate of vineyards under organic production. Statistics given to DEFRA by the Organic Certification Bodies show only two hectares of vineyards currently under organic production in the UK, but this is likely to be an underestimate.

If EU discussions lead to the labelling of ‘organic wine’ it may encourage producers to convert and further exploit this niche as part of the overall growth of the UK wine industry.