Applications for extraordinary support for the Douro open today

With a budget allocation of EUR 12 million, the support is intended for the vineyard area which, in the 2026/2027 wine year, is wholly or partially left unharmed, and the support assumes the non-refundable nature of the grant.

The beneficiaries must keep the grapes not harvested on the vines of the parcels identified in the application until the on-the-spot checks are carried out by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP).

Natural or legal persons who are wine growers in the RDD, including members of cooperative wineries, may benefit from this measure.

According to the IVDP notice, applications must be submitted exclusively by electronic means, through the reserved area of the public institute’s online page

The IVDP, based in Peso da Régua, district of Vila Real, decides within eight days of the expiry of the deadline for submitting applications.

If the applications exceed the budget allocation of EUR 12 million, a report shall be applied, i.e. a proportional reduction of the individual amount.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Sea has already said that this exception regime is “inserted in a framework of measures to normalize the wine sector, safeguard economic, social and environmental sustainability, and protect producers and cultural and landscape heritage of the Durian region”.

According to the ordinance, this measure is intended to “ensure these wine growers a minimum income, preventing the abandonment of the vineyard and the consequent degradation of the wine-growing landscape and the productive potential of the region”.

It is a “support for the income of the wine grower, not a measure of management or supply regulation”, and is “granted under the conditions of the de minimis agricultural scheme, without prejudice to full compliance with the rules applicable to the common organisation of the markets in agricultural products”.

By now, many producers are already in the final stage of harvests which this year began earlier in the RDD. This was also a year in which the problems of producers were exacerbated by difficulties in draining the harvest and selling the grape at reduced prices below production costs.

After last year's production in the Douro had grown up to 178,000 barrels of wine (550 liters each), the problems of the disposal of grapes again worsened this year.

There are winegrowers who complain that they have no buyers, others that they have only secured the grapes of the benefit, that is, the quantity of must that each can allocate for the production of Port wine, and generally also complain about the low price at which the grape is paid.