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French winemakers will transform wine that went unsold during the country's two-month COVID-19 lockdown, into hand sanitiser and ethanol to make room for the next harvest, a farming agency said on Thursday (Jun 4). Wine sales and exports, particularly to the United States, plunged at the height of the coronavirus crisis, leaving winemakers with millions of litres of unsold wine. Didier Josso, head of the wine branch in the farming agency FranceAgriMer, at a video press conference, that from tomorrow, 33 licensed distillers will be able to collect the wine and distil it. The alcohol resulting from the distillation is exclusively reserved for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry and the production of hand sanitiser, and for the production of ethanol. European public funds will finance the distillation of 200 million litres of French wine after Brussels gave its green light for the exceptional measure. Experts said 300 million litres were in-need of distilling. Major wine-producing countries such as Spain and Italy have resorted to similar measures to regulate the excess, as well as to the exceptional destruction of young grape vines//AFP/CNA