BRUSSELS—The European Union’s exports of sparkling wine to the rest of the world fell last year for the first time in a decade, Eurostat said on Friday, largely because of a massive drop in champagne sales, though prosecco and cava sold well. The COVID-19 pandemic dampened wine trade globally in 2020, the latest year for which data are available, as restaurants and bars remained closed for long periods. Champagne was hit the hardest. Sales outside the EU of the famed French sparkling wine fell over 20 percent by volume to 66 million liters in 2020 from nearly 84 million liters the previous year. That largely contributed to a 6 percent overall drop in EU exports of sparkling wines last year compared to 2019, the Eurostat data showed. EU exports fell from a peak of 528 million liters in 2019 to 494 million liters in 2020—still nearly twice the level recorded …
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