In the past year, Germany has been the most loyal customer of champagne. Even in times of crisis, sales remained fairly stable.

With a sales volume of 10.947.967 bottles the German market is the most stable sales market for champagne outside of France, the decrease in sales in 2009 was 5.4 per cent, well below the average. The picture in Austria is a different one, where only 675.046 bottles of champagne were sold last year, a decrease of 44.2 per cent compared to 2008.

Once again in 2009, Germany was the third largest export market for champagne, after Great Britain and the USA. Wolrdwide sales of champagne totalled 293.3 million bottles in 2009, a decrease of 9.1 per cent compared to 2008. The major champagne houses account for 66 per cent of this volume, or 193.5 million bottles (a decrease of 9.7 per cent), while individual producers and cooperatives account for 99.8 million bottles (a decrease of 7.9 per cent). (WF/press release)