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Drought poses a serious threat to Chile's wine industry
Release time:
2024-08-08
According to the website of Mexico's "Development" magazine on August 2nd
According to the website of Mexico's "Development" magazine on August 2nd, Chile takes pride in being one of the world's largest copper producers and lithium exporters. In addition to its abundant mineral resources, this South American country is also one of the largest and most renowned wine producing countries in the world.
According to the 2021 wine production report by the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture, the country produced 1.343 billion liters of wine that year, an increase of 29.9% from the previous year, making it the sixth largest wine producing country in the world.
The vast majority of Chilean wines (over 1 billion liters of wine) are origin named wines.
The report states that, like other major crops such as coffee or tea, vineyards around the world are also affected by climate change. Chile is also not immune, and wineries must take measures to address climate change in order to continue producing wine in the future.
The Mediterranean climate zone in Chile is most suitable for wine production, located between the south of the Joba River and the north of the Bio Bio River. It has distinct seasonal characteristics of cold and rainy winters and hot and dry summers, creating ideal conditions for a wide variety of flora and fauna.
However, this region has been facing severe drought for over a decade, which has affected the production of wine. The central region of Chile, where most of the wine production is concentrated, is one of the areas most affected by drought.
In Chile as a whole, the rainfall in 2021 was below normal levels, fluctuating between 40% and 70%. The severe drought has lasted for 13 years, making it the longest and hottest drought period in the country since at least 1900.
This is a structural factor that Chilean grape growers are struggling to survive on. The current situation forces the most important wine companies and small vineyards to adapt and develop new and more effective irrigation methods.
We have the technological capability to drive new technologies such as drip irrigation, which enables us to utilize water resources very effectively and tackle the challenges of drought in a very good way, "said Alvaro Gonzalez, Director of the Research and Innovation Center at Vinia Concha Toro Ltd. in Chile.
Valentina Lira, the sustainability manager of the company, pointed out that the company has been adopting more sustainable irrigation plans since the 1990s.
She told reporters, "At that time, we began to turn to new technologies such as drip irrigation. Now, 100% of the company's vineyards are irrigated by a system that delivers the water needed for crops drop by drop
The company also has a complete set of research and development plans aimed at improving water efficiency, and therefore collaborates with micro meteorological stations to create crop coefficients for its production system. Through a digital platform, the company's agricultural fund managers receive weekly information on the amount of water lost in vineyards.
This is just a pilot program implemented three years ago, but in the crops that have already been implemented, the water-saving rate is close to 18%. Lila pointed out that the company's goal is to achieve zero waste of water resources throughout the entire production chain, including planting, brewing, packaging, and transportation.
This is a long-term strategy, "Lila admitted, because" these are all things that require time to adapt.
Another approach taken by vineyards to resist drought is to eradicate all invasive crops inside and outside the estate, such as eucalyptus trees, as they are not adapted to the climate of central Chile and require more water than native species.
However, Chile has a climate advantage: the Humboldt Current. This makes Chile's temperature relatively stable compared to other wine producing regions in the world, allowing for the continued cultivation of traditional grapevines.
But Lira also acknowledges that although Chile's wine producing regions are less affected by climate than other areas, they are also and will further suffer from the impacts of climate change, so research must also be conducted to make crops more tolerant.
