French wines are still performing badly in the export market according to figures released yesterday.
The figures, released by the French wine and spirits export federation (FEVS), show that compared with the first six months of 2003 still wine exports have gone down by 4.2% in volume and by 8.4% in value.
Although Burgundian wines showed growth in both value and volume, Bordeaux is not doing as well. Figures show that Bordeaux exports have dropped by 11% in volume and by over 25% in value.
The poor performance of Bordeaux abroad is partly attributed to the popular 2000 vintage which became available at the beginning of 2003, making export results for the year a hard act to follow.
Champagne has posted the most encouraging growth for the struggling French wine market, showing a 14.2% increase in value on the first half of last year.
However, markets for French wine abroad are generally regressing with the UK and US markets dropping by 15.3% and 26.8% in value respectively.
Written by Oliver Styles
