Catalan independence debate takes fizz out of cava producer

The president of cava producer Freixenet, Josep Lluís Bonet, has admitted his company has become the focus of a boycott as a result of his personal views on the question of Catalan independence. But despite reiterating that Catalonia is “an essential part of Spain,” Bonet, who is also the president of the Spain Leading Brands Forum, said Freixenet has been buying up more land in the region in case a declaration of independence is issued.

“There are many Catalans who wish to be just Catalans, and there are many Catalans, like me, who wish to be Spanish as well,” Bonet said at the Foro España Internacional. “Indeed, there is a boycott,” of his company’s cava, he added, both within Spain as a whole, as has been the case intermittently for many years, and now also in Catalonia, following his statements in The New York Times regarding the region’s place within the Spanish state. “I would lend more significance to the consumer crisis than the boycott. There was the prospect of one in Catalonia after my words in The New York Times, which I just cannot understand. Freixenet’s fundamental core is in exports and its international presence. The boycott affects us and does us moral damage, but very little in the material sense.

“From an economic point of view, Catalonia is an essential part of Spain and so it should continue to be. It is essential because it leads the way in exports more than anyone else. Anybody who doesn’t want to see that is mistaken because the figures are there.”

Bonet took the opportunity to deny that Freixenet had shelved plans to invest in a 30-million-euro logistics center in Catalonia: “Nothing has been stopped. Freixenet continues to invest in Catalonia and other parts of Spain. I think the future is in multitregionalization; to be in all areas of Spain where good wine is made, and that is the direction the company is moving in. This summer, as well as the investment in Catalonia, we made another in Rias Baixas,” he added. In the event that Catalonia becomes independent, Bonet said Freixenet would “adapt to the situation.”

“I believe, looking at how things are, the best thing is not to contemplate that possibility too much because I don’t think it will happen. I am skeptical on the subject. The voices calling for moderation are growing ever louder. At the end of the day, a referendum, which has to be legal and agreed to by the government, will tell us what the percentages are.”