Paris, February 11th, 2021 – Exports of French wine and spiritsfell to 12,1 billion euros(‐13.9 %). This decline is due to US tariffs on wine and got amplified, from the spring, with the spread of the Covid‐19 pandemic. Therefore, exports of wine and liquors regained their 2016‐level. However, the sector remains the second largest contributor to the French trade surplus, with a 11 billion euros surplus (‐13.4 %).

“One year ago, we announced that 2020 would be a difficult year” recalls César Giron, Chairman of the FEVS. “Our expectations were exceeded. In 2020, our companies had to deal with an extremely unfavorable environment. This can be explained by the trade conflict with the US, that remains unsolved as of today, and the outbreak of the Covid‐19 pandemic whose effects propagated all over the world”. In the US, wine and spirits exports fell by 18 %, to 3.1 billion euros, with a 5.5 % decrease in volume. Regarding still wine, this decline results from “Airbus taxes” that caused American imports of French wines to drop by 400 million euros.   In the UK, the pandemic moderately affected still wines and spirits’ sales but got a more significant effect on sparkling wines. The outcome was a 6.5 % drop in exports, to 1.3 billion euros. The same effect can be observed regarding salesto the UE‐27, with a decrease of 7.1 % (3.1 billion euros). Consequences are, however, different for the northern and southern part of the continent.   The outbreak of the sanitary crisis in China, strongly affected consumer behavior during the Chinese New Year celebrations and caused exportsto drastically curb. Exports declined 15.2 %, to 809 million euros. The situation wassimilar in all of China / Hong‐Kong / Singapore, with a turnover that dropped to 1.9 billion euros(‐19.4 %). The worldwide turnover of French spirits decreased by 19.4 % to 3.8 billion euros, with a volume of 48.5 million cases (‐8.4 %). As for wine, it reached 8.2 milliard euros (‐11.3 %), for 132 million cases (‐5.1 %).

“In this extremely difficult environment, the French wine and spirits’ exporters found ways to preserve their positions and pave the way to the future and to the economic recovery that we all expect for 2021” affirmed César Giron. “In some countries, we could already see some small improvements, especially during the last trimester of 2020. However, we still need to get in control of the sanitary situation to ensure a global recovery”. “The situation is probably the most concerning, and therefore urgent, in the US. The sanctions, which targeted our sector, for the last 16 months toughened up on January 12th, jeopardize the presence of French wines on the biggest world market, the sustainability of our export companies, and even the 500 000 actors of the wine sector”. “The European Union needs to act as a leader in the resolution of this conflict: it is urgent that the Head of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, intervenes to solve this matter directly ‐ and without delay ‐  with the President Joe Biden” affirmsthe FEVS’ Chairman. “However, the urgent need to solve thistransatlantic conflict does not mean that the French State can avoid itsresponsibilities: Prime Minister Jean Castex is meeting with us on February 15th. This meeting needs to lead to strong decision‐makings in favor of exporters”.