Bens Latkovskis' article in Neatkarīgā on July 6 started a discussion on the question of whether all companies, all people must engage in each global conflict with the leaders of a country who sometimes violate the norms of a civilized society and do not respect international law.
Following the logic set out in the article, after the Russian State Duma passed a law stipulating that the word "champagne" in Russia may only be used to describe wines produced in Russia (and that when real champagne produced in Champagne province is marketed in Russia in the future, it should not be called "champagne", but it should be called "sparkling wine"), winemakers in Champagne should have boycotted their deliveries to Russia. Any indulgence to Russian legislation would mean kissing the boots of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
First of all, it should be noted that different countries may have very different requirements for information that must be included in food labels. For example, the labeling of alcoholic beverages in the EU only needs to indicate the percentage by volume of ethyl alcohol, but not the amount of sugar and the total calories. There are countries where such requirements exist. For EU producers to be able to market their products in such countries, they supplement their country-specific production with a label stating everything required by national legislation and food laws. The decision made by one of the largest champagne producers that the requirements of Russian legislation will be met when distributing its products in Russia in the future is not unusual or surprising. But let's say that winemakers in Champagne would decide to boycott the Russian market in response to the Russian State Duma's decision.
According to International Trade Center estimates, France's total wine exports in 2020 were 10 billion dollars. The main buyers of French wines were the United States (1.6 billion dollars), the United Kingdom (1.3 billion dollars) and Germany (834 million dollars). One-third of all wine exports were sparkling wines. In 2020, France exported about 3.2 billion dollars in sparkling wines (in 2019, before the pandemic, it was 3.9 billion dollars). In 2020, Champagne produced 89% (2.85 billion dollars) of all French sparkling wine exports. The main buyers of champagne produced in Champagne were the United States (511 million dollars), the United Kingdom (401 million dollars), Singapore (252 million dollars), Germany (189 million dollars), Japan (168 million dollars), and Italy (166 million dollars). Russia was only in twentieth place with 18.5 million dollars in champagne imports. Formally, Russia's share of total direct exports of champagne from Champagne was only 0.6% of total exports from France. Purely theoretically, stopping the export of drinks produced by Champagne winemakers to Russia would not cause any particular losses. In 2020, Latvia was the 32nd largest buyer of drinks from Champagne in the world with 8.4 million US dollars of champagne imports. In turn, all the Baltic countries together in 2020 bought champagne from Champagne worth 27 million dollars. Theoretically, the Baltic countries played a much bigger role in the import of real champagne than Russia as a whole. However, this is only theoretical. In fact, shipments of wine and other alcoholic beverages to Russia are assembled not just in France, but in many logistics centers in Germany, Eastern Europe, the Baltics, etc. Therefore, the statistics on direct exports of wine from France, Italy and other countries to Russia differ significantly from the data provided by Russia on the origin of imported wine. For example, Italy reports that it exported 144 million dollars' worth of wine to Russia in 2020, while Russia reports that it imported 338 million dollars' worth of Italian wines in 2020. The numbers get even crazier for France. France indicates that it exported 26 million dollars' worth of grape wine to Russia in 2020, while Russia reports that it imported 187 million dollars' worth of French wine in 2020. This discrepancy is due to the fact that many countries, including the Baltic States, import wines, including champagne, to complete the consignment for certain consumers in different countries and that a single consignment may include a different assortment of products. In 2020, Latvia was the 23rd largest (50 million dollars) importer of French wines in the world. Lithuania is also a major importer of French wine. In 2020, the Baltic States imported French wines for more than 100 million dollars. However, there is good reason to believe that most of these wines are then re-exported to Russia and other countries.
In any case, if the producers of real champagne decided to boycott the Russian market, it would not cause them very significant losses. That much is clear. But let's ask another question. If the producers of real champagne decided to boycott the Russian market, then who exactly would they punish with such a decision?
If Russia was a somewhat major exporter of wine, Russian winemakers could be penalized by a common agreement not to import Russian wines. After all, it was Russian wine producers who lobbied for such a law. However, in the global wine market, Russian imports and exports are absolutely asymmetric. Russia is the tenth largest wine importer in the world. In 2020, Russia imported about 1.1 billion dollars' worth of wines from other countries. On the other hand, exports of Russia's own wines are less than one-hundredth of the total imports of wines from other countries. In 2020, Russia exported its wines for only 10 million dollars, and 44% of Russian wine exports went to Ukraine.
If the real champagne producers decided to boycott the Russian market, they would not punish Putin, the Russian government or members of the Russian State Duma in any way. If these people suddenly wanted to taste a real Moët & Chandon's Dom Pérignon, they would do so, despite any boycotts. On the contrary! The decision to boycott the Russian market would only signal an intensification of the confrontation, seemingly confirming that the myth of Western retaliation for any sovereign decision by the Russian state is true. If the producers of real champagne decided to boycott the Russian market, then the only group that could really be punished would be the actual fans of real champagne in Russia. Real champagne is one of the most expensive wines. It is bought and consumed by those who can afford it and who choose this drink based on the properties that cheaper analogues do not have. If producers of real champagne decided to boycott the Russian market, true lovers of champagne would be punished instead of Russia's authoritarian rule. Why would the winemakers in Champagne do that?
Champagne producers can, of course, refuse to add Russian labels to their wine bottles, but there is nothing to prevent many wine importers and sellers in Russia from adding such a label once the wine has entered Russian territory. The law will be respected and there will be no protests from the Russian authorities.
There is another nuance. In Russian, the word "шампанское" is an eponym (a generic name derived from a person, place, or thing) that entered the lexicon in the middle of the 20th century and refers to any sparkling wine (wine produced by secondary fermentation technology with a high content of dissolved carbon dioxide). It is the same in Latvian. Since the middle of the 20th century, the word “šampanietis” has also become a generic word in Latvian, which is used as a synonym for the term “sparkling wine”. In the Latvian dictionary of foreign words (“Svešvārdu vārdnīca”, Riga: Liesma) published in 1978, the champagne is described as an eponym that has nothing to do with the place of origin of the word - Champagne in France. “Sparkling wine, grape wine saturated with carbon dioxide” (p. 689). In the dictionary tezaurs.lv compiled by Andrejs Spektors, champagne is “a sparkling wine obtained in the process of double fermentation from grapes of special varieties; only Champagne wines are officially considered champagne; unofficially, carbonated wines produced in other countries are also called champagne". Baiba Bankava (Baiba Bankava. Eponīmi latviešu valodā. Latviešu valodas aģentūra. Valodas prakse: vērojumi un ieteikumi. Populārzinātnisku rakstu krājums. Ed. O. Bušs. No. 6. Riga: Latgales druka, 2011. pp. 58.-71.) has also included the word “champagne” as one of the eponyms (p. 68). Therefore, the Russian decision applies to a certain extent to Latvia, because we will not be able to export sparkling wines produced in Latvia to Russia using the word “champagne”. Champagne produced in Latvia must also be supplemented with a label in Russian stating that it is a sparkling wine.
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