An infectious grapevine disease has now been detected in almost all of Hungary’s wine-producing regions, including in one of the world’s oldest classified wine areas, the national food safety agency said Wednesday.
The disease, flavescence doree, can be devastating for producers, greatly reducing the productivity of older vines and killing younger ones, though it is not harmful to humans.
It is mainly transmitted by the American grapevine leafhopper, a pest that has spread significantly across central Europe in recent years because of climate change.
There is no known treatment against it.
Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) said suspected cases had been discovered near two villages in northern wine regions that until now had not been affected.
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One is in the Tokaj area, famous for its sweet wines, which is one of the first legally recognised wine regions in the world.
“The county plant protection inspectors took samples at both locations, and the Nebih laboratory ultimately confirmed the presence of the quarantine pathogen,” the agency said in a statement.
Authorities have begun setting up perimeters around the affected plantations, where they inspect all vines and destroy those infected.
Hungary produced 270 million litres of wine last year, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), making it the 14th largest producer in the world, representing 1.2 percent of the global output.
The post Hungary Warns Vineyard Disease Now In Most Wine-Growing Regions appeared first on Channels Television.
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