In 2021, the European Union will be raising its glass in celebration as sparkling wine exports to countries outside the EU amounted to 636 million litres, a significant increase of 29% compared with 2020, Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, reports. Sparkling wine exports from the EU have now reached record highs.
This significant increase comes after the first year of the pandemic, which significantly hampered the growth of the wine trade, mainly due to the closure of bars and restaurants. In 2020, there was a 6% decline in exports compared with 2019.’
Exports recorded in 2021 have now risen above the number of exports recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic, with data indicating a 21% increase since 2019. Between 2017 and 2021, exports rose at an average annual rate of 7%.
Credit: Eurostat
The three largest export categories of extra-EU exports of sparkling wine were prosecco (43%, 273 million litres), champagne (15%, 94 million litres), and cava (10%, 65 million litres).
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Prosecco is a protected category of sparkling wine produced in nine provinces of Venetia in Italy; champagne is a protected category of sparkling wine from France’s Champagne region; and Cava is sparkling wine made with only traditional methods in parts of Spain.
The top two export destinations for sparkling wine from the EU were the United States (31% of all extra-EU exports of sparkling wine) and the United Kingdom (28%).
While Europe has no shortage of quality sparkling wines, EU Member States still imported 5.8 million litres of sparkling wine from outside of Europe. This is just a hundredth of what the EU exported.
