French Wine Exports to China: Evidence from Intra-French Regional Diversification and Competition

While France leads the way in the Chinese import market of wine, China is France's third largest wine export market by value. In this article, I analyze the determinants of France's wine exports to China, differentiated by French wine growing regions. I estimate a simple demand using a dataset on wine shipments of 100 different types of French bottled wines to China between 1998 and 2015. I find a wide range of income and price effects across French regions-a range not unlike those found by studies spanning multiple countries. Bordeaux wines exhibit the largest Chinese income elasticity. However, other French regions appear to catch up. Price elasticity, meanwhile, is particularly low for highly reputable wines, but quite high for wines targeting middle-class customers and wines from regions traditionally known for white wines.