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Friday 2 October 2009

The exchange rate: the spectre at the feast

Although 2009 is generally looking very promising in the Loire, there is one dark, menacing cloud – the current strength of the euro against both the dollar and sterling. As predicted by several merchants I spoke to in February at the Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers, French wine is being hammered by sterling's weakness. In mid-August it did look as though the pound was moving in the right direction when it briefly it £1=1.18€. Unfortunately since then it has been all downhill with sterling now hovering around £1=1.09€ and the possibility of parity not far off. The rate against the dollar is no better with one dollar worth 69 cents in the eurozone.

Seeing British cars in the Loire has now become quite rare. Last week Thierry Delaunay remarked that they had seen few British visitors at the domaine this year.

It will be no good having a wonderful vintage if you can't sell your wines in two of your most important export markets – USA and the UK.
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2 comments:

  1. Jon2 October 2009 at 20:30

    Quite agree Jim- I work at Chambord and the amount of English people visiting this year is way down on the past couple of years, hopefully it will pick up again next year.

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  2. Jean2 October 2009 at 22:33

    We have noticed that there were fewer British cars around this summer. I'm sure that this is in part due to the press who had a campaign to try to convince the English to take a holiday at home.
    In reality the slightly increased cost of a holiday in France compared to last year would have been well worth it. Lots of Brits have paid through the nose to holiday in say the Lake District where the weather is always wet and a holiday cottage costs double that of a gite in France.
    There is a lot of nervousness around that is stifling the economy unnecessarily. However, we are doing our best to redress the balance !! Cheers !!

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