Small and medium winegrowers in the Demarcated Region of the Douro face serious financial difficulties, with grapes unsold and production costs constantly increasing. Manuel Jorge, with eight hectares of vineyards in Ervedosa do Douro, in the municipality of São João da Pesqueira, warns that there are producers admitting to abandoning the vines. The production cost per hectare can reach around five thousand euros, between labor, phytopharmaceuticals, machinery, and transport, aggravated this year by hail damage. The grapes that fall outside the "benefício" — the maximum quota of generous must for Port wine — have to be sold for DOC Douro still wines, but at much lower prices: while a pipe for Port wine can be worth between 900 and 1,200 euros, a pipe for still wines can range only between 150 and 400 euros.
The mayor of São João da Pesqueira, Manuel Cordeiro, also a winegrower, confirms that he receives daily appeals from producers asking for help. Joaquim Pedreiro, 73 years old, still has no buyer for this year's harvest beyond the 30 pipes of "benefício" quota. The hail and high diesel prices have worsened the situation, leading many farmers to consider letting the grapes rot. The Demarcated Region of the Douro, the oldest in the world, represents approximately 44% of the value of Portuguese wine exports, but the value generated is not distributed evenly along the wine production chain.
The "benefício" has been decreasing in recent years: from 104 thousand pipes in 2023 it dropped to 90 thousand in 2024 and 75 thousand in 2025, a drop of 29 thousand pipes in three years. The IVDP has now authorized the production of 76 thousand pipes for 2026. Among the proposed measures are distillation with state support — as happened in 2025 with 50 cents per kilogram of grapes — and the use of regional wine spirit for the production of Port wine and Moscatel. António Filipe, president of the Port Wine Companies Association, rejects the mandatory nature of this measure, arguing that the trade cannot buy more than it can sell and that mandatory requirements would be catastrophic for the sector.
The winegrowers are not asking for subsidies, but rather for changes to legislation that is
