Lower Chinese export for French wine and liquor

Export down to 10.8 billion euro

In 2014, France exported 10.8 billion euros worth of wine and liquor, according to the Fédération des Exportateurs de Vins et Spiritueux français (FEVS), which is nearly 3 % lower than the year before.

Christophe Navarre, head of the FEVS, remains upbeat about the performance: “This is the third best performance ever in the history of the wine and liquor branch and the fourth year in a row we have surpassed the 10 billion euro mark.”

Chinese sales fall back

The United States are still France’s most important export market, with a 4 % turnover growth in 2014. Its European performance is holding steady, with decent numbers for Germany and Sweden and growth once more for Italy and Spain. Eastern European export has suffered under the Ukrainian crisis and the faltering ruble.

Export to Belgium remained stable and the small country is still France’s sixth most important export region. In total, France exported 596 million euros worth of wine and liquor to Belgium.

Chinese exports have suffered tremendously because the local government has been fighting corruption for several years now and that means that giving away (French) high-quality drinks has been restricted. That has resulted in a 17.4 % turnover drop, down to 681 million euro. Chinese turnover had already suffered a similar drop in 2013, down 18 %.