Decanter World Wine AwardsBordeaux exports up 26%, but Alsace, Languedoc, Loire down
- Monday 5 September 2011
Image: group-trotter.net
From January to June 2011, there has been a 5% volume increase and a 15% value increase compared to the same period in 2010, Ubifrance, the French trade commission, reports.
France exported some 6.6m hectoliters of wine valued at €3.1bn, Ubifrance said.
The wine recovery is mainly driven by countries outside Europe, although the EU still remains stable, Ubifrance project manager Marie Cambon said.
China, which was double the value of Japan in the first half of 2011 in wine exports, is the engine for Asian markets, Cambon told Decanter.com.
‘We observed a very good value increase for our wine exports, particularly to Asia and to the United States.
The strongest performing exports came from Bordeaux, with a 26% sales increase and a 34% value increase compared to 2010. But other regions also saw increases, including Burgundy, Champagne and the Rhone Valley.
Exports from Alsace, Languedoc and the Loire Valley decreased in both value and volume.
Three per cent less Beaujolais was sold but its value increased by over 6%.
‘Provence continues to benefit from a global trend for rose wines to be at the top of the export markets,’ said Cambon. Even though its volume ‘remains limited’ the increases are impressive: 16.6% increase in value and a 27.7% increase in volume over last year.
Have your say!
Foulques Aulagnon
September 07 15:59
The figures in this news story are not correct and in fact exports of Alsace Wines have increased in value in 1st half of 2011.
We have much more accurate figures at the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace (CIVA) than French customs, and our most recent information shows that exports of Alsace Grand Cru, AOC Alsace and AOC Crémant d’Alsace wines increased by 5.8% in value when compared to the same period (January to June) in 2010. There was a slight decrease of -1.8% in volume, but this is not as much as has been stated by Douanes Françaises.
There are many reasons why CIVA has more accurate figures than French customs. Firstly, every single wine cellar, négociant and grower declares every single litre of wine sold and exported to CIVA: wineries with a turnover inside the EU under 460,000 € do not have to declare their volumes to the French customs, so ‘smaller’ wineries are not included in their figures. But they are in ours.
Other reasons - which all add up - include: smaller quantities sold on a nearby export market directly to consumers do not have to be declared to French customs; the overseas French departments (eg. Martinique, Guadaloupe etc.) are counted as domestic markets by French customs and so are not included in these figures (we estimate that sales here can account for as much as 150 hectolitres in six months); in January French customs changed the codes used so often something like Crémant d’Alsace is counted as another type of French wine; they also do not have a separate code for Alsace Wines which are over 15 degrees ABV - so these are not included in their statistics, but they are of course in ours.
These are the main reasons why our figures give a far more accurate picture of the increase in value sales of Alsace Wines.
Foulques Aulagnon
Export Manager
Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace
Eddie Mosdell
September 06 10:14
Great results from France, although no real suprises when you observe the influance of en primeur Bordeaux value sales to Asia in particular,couple this with a tendancy during hard times for wine drinkers to revert back to traditional quality wine producing areas within France, hence the increases in Champagne, Burgundy,Rhone and Provence, a very good run of good vintages obviously also has its influance, lets hope the quality continues, and the prices relax a bit soon!