French wine sales shrug off adverse atoll test reaction

French wine and spirits exports in 1995 increased by 1.5 per cent to 34.5bn francs (pounds 4.7bn), despite a boycott campaign in protest against nuclear tests in the South Pacific. The protest is estimated to have resulted in the loss of FF750m worth of exports, and stopped 1995 being a record year. Effects of the boycott were particularly felt in Scandinavia,

the Netherlands and Canada. However, Japan, which was highly critical of the tests, saw sales of Bordeaux and Burgundy wines and Champagne increase by 11.4 per cent to more than FF1bn. Germany, where the anti-nuclear lobby is strong, remained the biggest importer of French wine and spirits in volume and the third in value, behind the UK and the US.