For years, Nigeria has been renowned as Africa’s top consumer of champagne, but that might not last for long as consumption of the bubbly in Ivory Coast is quickly rising, making it the fastest growing market for the product on the continent.
Nigeria is known for its high spenders and the oil-rich West African country is the largest market for private jets and champagne, with some speculating that there are as many people popping the expensive wine bottles in the country as in France, the origin of Champagne.
The Africa’s largest economy was the 22nd biggest consumer of champagne in the world in 2014 when it imported 768,131 bottles and consumed about 1.1 million, according to the International Wine and Spirits Research.
According to data compiled by the Comite Champagne, a trade association based in Epernay, France, champagne sales in Ivory Coast tripled between 2011 and 2014 to reach 211,103 bottles, despite its retailing at a pricey $38 to $200.
“Champagne is flowing like water in Ivory coast,” Vincent Voisin, Africa and Middle East export director of Grands Chais de France, one of France’s leading exporters of wines and spirits, told Bloomberg in an interview in Abijan, Ivory Coast’s capital city.
Clearly the difference in consumption between the two West African nation is large in absolute numbers, but might not be that wide when you factor in that Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation — has more people in the middle class than Ivory Coast, a country just emerging from civil war.
Ivory Coast in now the fourth largest champagne consuming nation i Africa after Angola, South Africa and Nigeria.
As a region, sub-Saharan Africa has been come the target market for many wine and spirits companies and investors due to its young population that it quickly entering the middle class.
While alcohol consumption has declining in developed nations like the US and China (see bar graph above), Africa has been the the fastest-growing market for beer and other fizzy drinks.
Also Read: 17 Top Alcohol-Drinking Countries In Africa
