A Week After Publishing It, the Government Rewrites the Douro Non-Harvest Formula, and Growers Who Pick Less Now Get More

Eight days after it set the rules for paying Douro growers to leave unsold grapes on the vine, the government has rewritten the one sentence that decides how much each grower receives. Portaria n.º 436/2026/1 (Ministerial Order 436/2026/1), published in the Diário da República on Wednesday 23 September, replaces the definitions at the heart of the formula, and it does so with retroactive effect.

The amending order also resets the deadline for opening applications. The Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (Douro and Port Wine Institute, or IVDP) now has 15 days from Thursday, when the amendment enters into force, to publish the notice that opens the single application window.

What the original order said

Portaria n.º 431/2026/1, published on 15 September, pays 1,125 euros per hectare of vineyard multiplied by a coeficiente de não colheita (non-harvest coefficient). The envelope is 12 million euros, authorised by Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 177/2026 (Council of Ministers Resolution 177/2026) of 9 September.

As first published, Article 2 defined the unharvested production as the quantity the grower reports on the 2026-2027 declaração de colheita e produção (harvest and production declaration), in kilograms per hectare, minus the grower's reference average productivity. The coefficient then divided that figure by the maximum production per hectare the IVDP sets for the Região Demarcada do Douro (Douro Demarcated Region).

Read literally, that subtraction ran the wrong way for a grower who leaves fruit hanging. A grower who picks less than usual declares less than their average, and the declared quantity minus the average is then a negative number. The only growers with a positive figure would have been those who declared a harvest above their own five-year normal. When we reported the order on 15 September, we described it in those literal terms, as a payment for the crop above a grower's own normal.

What the amendment changes

Portaria 436/2026/1 turns the subtraction around and changes what it is divided by. From now on:

• Unharvested production is the reference average productivity, calculated by the IVDP, minus the quantity reported on the 2026-2027 harvest declaration for parcels in the region, in kilograms per hectare.
• The non-harvest coefficient is that unharvested production divided by whichever is larger: the reference average productivity, or the average productivity of the whole region over the last five campaigns.

The order's preamble explains the change in a single sentence: it had become necessary to alter the two definitions, "modifying the calculation criteria used to determine the support". It does not say that the original wording was an error.

The definition of the reference average itself is untouched. It is still the average production the grower declared over the five previous campaigns, or over the campaigns with declared production where the history is shorter. Growers who started in 2026, and growers who exceeded the region's maximum yield in any of the previous five campaigns, still have their own average replaced by the region's five-campaign average.

What that means in euros

Under the new wording, the payment grows with the share of a grower's normal crop that stays unpicked, and it can never exceed the full 1,125 euros per hectare. Because the grower's own average is always one of the two figures in the denominator, the coefficient tops out at 1, which is reached when nothing at all is declared.

An illustration, our own arithmetic rather than a figure from the order: a grower whose reference average is 6,000 kilograms per hectare, and who declares 2,000 kilograms per hectare this year, has unharvested production of 4,000. If their own average is larger than the regional average, the coefficient is 4,000 divided by 6,000, or two thirds, and the payment is 750 euros per hectare. If the regional average is larger, the coefficient and the payment are smaller.

The regional five-campaign average is a figure the IVDP holds. Neither order states it, so the exact per-hectare outcome for any grower whose own average sits below the region's cannot be worked out from the published text.

Everything else in the original order stands. If approved claims exceed the 12 million euro envelope, every award is cut proportionally. The agricultural de minimis ceiling still applies. The grapes named in an application must stay on the vine until the IVDP has inspected them on site, and picking or selling them anyway means repaying the grant and exclusion from IVDP support for the next two campaigns.

A new clock for the application window

The original order gave the IVDP 15 days from 16 September to announce the application window, which would have run out at the start of October. The amendment removes that deadline from Article 6 and sets a fresh one in its own Article 3: the notice must now appear within 15 days of the amendment's entry into force on 24 September.

The window itself has not changed. Applications are made through each grower's reserved area on ivdp.pt, they stay open for 15 days from the start date set in the notice, and the period is "single and non-extendable" for every grower in the region.

The amendment takes effect from the date the original order entered into force. In practice nothing has been paid yet, because no application window has opened, so the retroactive clause means every claim will be assessed under the new formula.

What this means for residents of Portugal

If you own or rent vines in the Douro and cannot sell this year's grapes, the rule change works in your favour if your harvest this year is below your usual level, which is the situation the measure was announced to address. Keep an eye on the IVDP website from Thursday: the notice can appear at any point in the next 15 days, and the 15-day window that follows it will not be extended.

Check your declared production history in your IVDP reserved area before you apply, since the reference average is built from it. Identify the parcels you will leave unpicked, and do not harvest them until the inspection has taken place.

For background on the wider crisis in the region, see our earlier reports on the government's announcement of the measure and on the benefício quota that sets how much Douro wine can become Port.

Source: Portaria n.º 436/2026/1 and Portaria n.º 431/2026/1, Diário da República, 1.ª série, n.º 185 of 23 September 2026 and n.º 179 of 15 September 2026.