Let's Stand Together: Winegrape grower group chief says it's time for growers to organize

摘要

THE leader of one of the top winegrape grower groups believes the time has come to charge growers a mandatory assessment on their grapes and pool the money to promote American wine. Nat DiBuduo, the president and chief executive officer of Allied Grape Growers, a winegrape marketing cooperative with more than 500 California grower-members, said the U.S. is simply importing too much foreign wine at the expense of American growers. Now, nearly one-third of the wine consumed in the U.S. is imported, andthat figure keeps going up, says DiBuduo. All the growers say that needs to stop, but that won't happen unless the growers do something about it. "We need to take them head on," he says. "We have a great product — we just need to make sure consumers know it."