New figures show that French wine exports reached record value last year, mainly thanks to Champagne.
Overall French wine sales abroad in 2015 reached nearly €7.93bn, show statistics released by the French federation of wine and spirits exporters (FEVS). Accounting for inflation, that means exports were 0.8% higher than the previous record, in 2012.
Champagne sales, worth nearly €2.7bn outside of France, drove wine sales to their record, said FEVS’ director general, Pierre Genest. Champagne exports grew by nearly 5% in volume and by 12.1% in value.
Exports of French still wines fell in volume for the third straight year, by 5.2% compared to 2014.
But, FEVS highlighted success in value terms. Bordeaux exported around 22.6m cases of wine in 2015, down 2.8% versus 2014, but the value of exports rosé by nearly 3%.
Similarly, Burgundy exported about 6.17m cases of wine, a drop in volume by 2.3%, but the value of the exported wine rose by over 5% compared to last year.
Several factors explain the overall success of French wine exports, including a weakened euro compared to the US dollar as well as a ‘rebound’ in China for French wine buying, said Genest.
The US was the number one market for French wines last year, with nearly a 25% increase in value of French wines purchased.
Germany was still the top market for French wines by volume, even though volumes imported dropped by nearly 19%, and value fell by more than 11.5%.
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