Champagne shipments have fallen by six million bottles in the past 12 months.
Estimates released by the Comité Champagne this week show 306 million Champagne bottles were shipped in 2016, with an estimated turnover of 4.5 billion euros, down from 4.75 billion euros in 2015.
Jean-Marie Barillère, president of the Union des Maisons de Champagne, told the drinks business that much of the decline was a result of falling sales in France and the UK.
Four million fewer bottles were sold in France in 2017, down from 162 million in 2016; while shipments have fallen by three million bottles in the UK.
Vincent Perrin, general director of the Comité Champagne, blamed the UK fall on Brexit.
“When we forecasted the sales volume in July, we had no inkling the market would shrink at such a pace,” he told Decanter.
However, Spain and Italy enjoyed increases and the international market outside Europe grew by a modest 0.5% increase, representing an extra 600,000 bottles, up from 70.3 million in 2015 to 70.9 million last year.
Australia remains a buoyant market, with the Herald Sun noting this week: “We’re guzzling more imported champagne than the ladies in Absolutely Fabulous. In 2015, we imported 8.1 million bottles of champagne, an increase of almost 25 per cent on the previous year.”
China continues to be a stumbling block for Champagne. Figures from the China Association for Imports and Exports of Wine & Spirits show the country’s sparkling wine imports dropped 2.4% in volume and 9.5% in value in the first 11 months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015.
“Normally, they do not like cold drinks – either because of bubbles or the acidity, while these are the main characteristics of Champagne,” Wang Wei, representative for the Comité Champagne office in Beijing, told drinks business Hong Kong.
Wei noted that Champagne is associated with celebrations and holidays, but Baijiu is still the main drink for Chinese holidays.
