In a study it was found that the per capita consumption of wine in India is estimated at 10 ml per person per year and the government want to increase it to 100 ml per person there is a need to manufacture 120 million litres annually. Presently, the wine production in India is estimated at 15 million litres. Of this, Maharashtra alone contributes 13 million litres, followed by Karnataka and other states.
The idea of encouraging more wine production is to provide a better market for our farmers which are presently resorting to the distress sale of grapes as the shelf life of the fruit is only six days.
So, farmers are going in for their conversion into raisins which has limited market opportunities. It would be better for the farmers if government can encourage them to diversify into wine production. It is good for both farmers and the wine industry. With this purpose in mind, government has proposed to set up wine parks in the states.
Nashik Wine Park & Sangali Wine Park in Maharashtra
The government of Maharashtra nominated Maharashtra industrial development corporation as the nodal agency for establishment of the grape vine parks in the state and would coordinate efforts of various organization from central and state agencies and the stake holders such as farmers, processors, service providers etc. under this policy wine parks have been established by MIDC additionally a Grape Processing And Research Institute (GPRI) has been established at Palus under the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University.
Objectives of GPRI are:
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To give formal training to farmers through courses. The successful candidates are awarded certificates, diploma and degrees and wine grape cultivation, wine making and wine marketing.
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To set up grape wine nurseries to provide authentic plant material to growers.
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To manufacture standard wines on a small scale to provide demonstration.
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To set up a quality control laboratory for wines.
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To impart wine blending techniques.
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To explore domestic and international markets.
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To help farmers by setting up a mother unit for manufacture of wine.
Two mother wines one at Vinchur near Nashik and another at Palus near Sangli have been established. The concept of mother unit is to set up common facilities such as equipment for processing like pneumatic press, crusher, destemmer, filtration unit, bottling unit, quality control lab, cold storage (celler), packaging house and the services of the wine master and wine tester, which are costly and required for short period of 2-3 days in a season.
The Maharashtra industrial development corporation has set up 2 wine parks with interaction standard infrastructure – Godawavri Wine Park at Vinchur, in Nasik and Krishna Wine Park at Palus in Sangali District. Other wine producing states are also planning to take similar steps to promote the industry. State level regulatory policies are being relaxed for instance in the state of Uttar Pradesh the government has allowed the sale of wine in all recognized groceries outlet. Many other state government has also appreciated the benefits of wine consumption as opposed to traditional brown and wine spirits, and are active in there promotional efforts.
Nashik Wine Park is a grape wine park administered by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation. It is in the district of Nashik, Maharashtra State, India. It contains 97 plots developed for winery activities with average plot size of 2000 square meters. The role of MIDC is to provide land at reasonable rates and to build infrastructure such as good roads, water supplies, power and telera has declared the Nashik Wine Park as a preferential area and a small-scale industry with a 100% exemption from excise duty for ten years and relief in sales tax levels. The government has established a Wine Institute to train the farmers and Maharashtra Grape Board to promote the industry and exports. There are about 34 wine projects in Maharashtra; out of that, 20 are only in Nashik district. The famous names are Sula and Vinsura.
Wine Board plans Wine Parks in Bijapur and Chickaballapur in Karnataka
Measures initiated to increase area under cultivation of wine grapes to about 5,000 acres by 2015.
In an effort to give an impetus to the production of wine and encourage wineries in the state, the Karnataka Wine Board (KWB) is planning an integrated wine park, the first of its kind in South India. The state government recently allotted 141.28 acres at Toravi village, 8 kms from Bijapur to the KWB for the proposed park. Bijapur has been selected for the wine park as the district is well known for growing seedless grapes in the Krishna Valley.
The aim of developing the Wine Park is to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in wineries and provide a better market for growers in and around Bijapur district. The KWB is preparing a detailed plan for executing the Wine Park. It will have all activities like the manufacture of wine, research and development, and training among others.
The department would float tenders very soon inviting the private sector to invest in the proposed Wine Park. A transaction advisor is also being appointed. The proposed Wine Park will provide common facilities to the private sector like laboratory to test the quality of grapes, a centre of excellence, among others to help both farmers and entrepreneurs.
The private sector will be invited to invest in wineries in this park and they will be offered a lot of incentives as per the wine policy of the state.
In an attempt to encourage grape cultivation and promote the wine industry, the Karnataka government has announced the establishment of two wine parks at Chickaballapur and Bijapur as public-private partnership projects.The move is being seen as a way to replicate Maharashtra's success in wine.
The government plans to issue seven licenses to set up wineries in the Bijapur Park. The licensing system has been liberalised and simplified to attract investors, who have been flocking to Maharashtra. The license fee is a nominal Rs.1,000 and the license can be obtained in within 30 days of submission of the application. It will provide infrastructure — roads, electricity, drinking water and drainage in the parks, besides offering growers incentives to set up wine production and processing units.
About 9,700 hectares of land is under grape cultivation in the state, and the estimated annual production is little over 1.5 million litres. Compared to that, Maharashtra has about 40,000 acres under cultivation, producing about 21 million litres annually. That's about 94 per cent of the country's total wine production. The state has around 51 wineries which include some of the largest producers like Sula Vineyards, Champagne Indage and United Spirits. Karnataka, which has just two wineries — Grover Vineyards and Hampi Heritage Vineyards - is hoping to invite more wine investment through its new policy.
The two states have been up in arms over their wine production. Karnataka recently decided to give its local wineries a boost by increasing the excise duty on wine made outside Karnataka to Rs.300 a litre from Rs.10 a litre. This is a response to Maharashtra which, seven years ago, established a wine policy that exempts local wines from a whopping 150 per cent excise duty that other wines had to pay.
Today, almost 20 districts in Karnataka grow grapes of different varieties on over 17,500 hectares while wine variety grapes are grown on about 2,000 acres. KWB has divided the state into three valleys — Krishna, Cauvery and Nandi. The total production of grapes has cross the 300,000 tonnes mark annually. The KWB has initiated measures to increase the area under cultivation of wine grapes to about 5,000 acres by 2015.
Since the introduction of the wine policy in 2007, the number of wineries in the state has risen to 14 with an annual production of about 2.5 mil-lion litres. The KWB has projected wine production at 5 million litres in the next two years. Already, five more wineries are in the pipeline and more capacity addition is expected with the revised wine policy being introduced later this year.