Looks like consumers, both nationwide and around the world, aren’t feeling particularly celebratory to pop bottles of champagne, CNN reported.
A new report from Comité Champagne — an organization consisting of key players in champagne production, including growers, cooperatives and merchants — found that the total number of champagne shipments from France dropped nearly 10% last year, to 271 million bottles.
The reason for the steep decline can be attributed to rising food costs, along with a general pessimistic outlook on the current state of the world. Maxime Toubart, co-president of Comité Champagne, told CNN that now is “no time for celebration, with inflation, conflicts around the world, economic uncertainty and a political wait-and-see attitude in some of Champagne’s biggest markets,” both in the U.S. and in France.
Within France, champagne sales declined 7% to 118 million bottles because the “domestic market is still suffering from the prevailing gloomy political and economic context,” according to a statement obtained by the outlet.
In 2024, several luxury brands and major champagne producers reported a steep decline in sales. French luxury goods brand LVMH reported a 15% decline in sales for the first half of the year. “Champagne is quite linked with celebration, happiness, et cetera,” LVMH Chief Financial Officer Jean-Jacques Guiony said on an earnings call, per CNN. “Maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne.”
French spirits group Rémy Cointreau stated in a recent financial report that it’s also expecting a decrease in sales due to more consumers growing weary of inflation-fueled food prices.
