Key Points:
- France’s wine exports rebound in Q2 & Q3 of 2021, after registering a drop in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic.
- The United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany remain as the biggest buyers of French wine, accounted for about 40% to France’s total wine exports.
- New variants, Omicron and “IHU” may result in fresh supply chain restrictions in 2022, and economy recover is only possible in second half of the year.
Wine exports from France have been returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, however a new variant, Omicron and “IHU” are spreading faster and may result in putting fresh supply chain restrictions that could again impact the country’s wine exports.
France shipped wine worth US$ 9,560 million from January to September 2021 and about US$ 9,974 million worth of wine shipments were departed in 2020. The United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany remain the major foreign buyers, accounting for around 40% of total wine exports from France.
France Wine Exports by Quarter
The first of half of 2020 saw a sharp decline in wine exports from France due to Covid-19 pandemic. There was some recovery in last quarter of 2020, when France’s wine exports grew to 62.5% from 53.9% in third quarter. The year 2021 saw rebound of France wine exports with share in values reported 58.1% (2021-Q1), 59.5% (2021-Q2) and 56.2% (2021-Q3). Below given chart shows dollar amount of France’s wine exports reported during 2020-Q1 and 2021-Q3.
| Quarter | Value US$ Million |
| 2020-Q1 | 2,162 |
| 2020-Q2 | 1,929 |
| 2020-Q3 | 2,572 |
| 2020-Q4 | 3,361 |
| 2021-Q1 | 2,577 |
| 2021-Q2 | 3,693 |
| 2021-Q3 | 3,290 |
France Wine Exports by Year
Since 2010, France has been experiencing a positive growth in wine exports. France’s wine exports fell in 2020 due to Covid-19 supply chain restrictions and some recovery was reported in 2021. Here are values of France wine export shipments recorded from 2010 to 2021 (till Sep).
| Year | Value US$ Million |
| 2010 | 8,387 |
| 2011 | 10,014 |
| 2012 | 10,099 |
| 2013 | 10,396 |
| 2014 | 10,295 |
| 2015 | 9,184 |
| 2016 | 9,171 |
| 2017 | 10,283 |
| 2018 | 11,096 |
| 2019 | 10,970 |
| 2020 | 9,974 |
| 2021 (Till Sep) | 9,560 |
France Wine Exports by Country
From January to September 2021, France’s wine exports totalled US$ 9,560 million. The United States of America remain the biggest buyer of French wine, accounting for US$ 1,642 million in 2020, followed by United Kingdom (US$ 1,337 million) and Germany (US$ 834 million). All these three countries together shared about 40% value to total French wine exports.
In quantity terms, France shipped wine the most to Germany (232K tonnes), followed by the UK (204K tonnes), and the U.S. (161K tonnes). Here is the list of France’s top 10 export partners of wine with their percentage share reported during Q1 of 2020 to Q3 of 2021.
| Country | 2020-Q1 (%) | 2020-Q2 (%) | 2020-Q3 (%) | 2020-Q4 (%) | 2021-Q1 (%) | 2021-Q2 (%) | 2021-Q3 (%) |
| United States | 19.5 | 15.3 | 17.8 | 14 | 17.5 | 21 | 20 |
| United Kingdom | 12.1 | 13.7 | 12.8 | 14.7 | 11.2 | 13.1 | 12.9 |
| Germany | 8.3 | 9.2 | 7.7 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 6.3 | 6.5 |
| Japan | 6.7 | 6.2 | 5.6 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 4.8 | 5.5 |
| Belgium | 5.2 | 7.4 | 6.4 | 6.7 | 6 | 5.6 | 5.4 |
| Canada | 4.6 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.5 |
| Hong Kong | 4.2 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 5.9 | 5.2 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| China | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.9 | 5.7 | 5.1 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
| Singapore | 3.8 | 2.5 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| Netherlands | 3.5 | 5.6 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 4 | 3.7 | 3.7 |
The new variants of Covid-19 pandemic, Omicron and IHU are developing new concerns of France’s wine export market as new restrictions are already imposed due to Omicron and fresh ones may be in place due to surge in IHU cases. The recovery in wine exports from France is only hopeful in second half of 2022.
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