Exported French champagne dropped by 28% in 2009. Global sales of French brandy Cognac also declined by 15.6%. France is the worlds biggest exporter of wines and spirits. So why has there been such a large drop in these exports?
Firstly and probably the most obvious reason is the global recession which has hit luxury items harder. If we think in terms of income elasticity of demand, as income rises people will start to buy this product. However, if incomes start to fall, as they have in the recession, sales will fall as people chose not to buy this product.
The second reason is that there is an increasing number of good substitutes produced in other countries, they cannot call their product champagne but they are still good substitutes.
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