INDIA AND CHINA HAVE POTENTIAL TO BE LARGEST WINE PRODUCERS, SAY EXPERTS
By NANDANA DAS in NEW DELHI
India is fast becoming “fine” with wine
that has traditionally been mocked as
being a ladies’ drink by a large majority
of the populace who prefer hard
liquors and beers.
The country, which has a long tradition
of winemaking, is becoming “one of
the largest potential producers of wine, say
industry insiders. Notably, it is only recently
that Indian wines are competing with more
established winemaking regions, including
the UK.
According to a report by the UK-based
International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR),
the wine industry in India will grow at 25-30
percent annually till 2025. In fact, the country
has become the 10th largest growing nation
for wine consumption, in value and volume
terms, for the period 2009-13, according to
the IWSR 2010 study.
In its estimate, India and China will soon
become the world’s two fastest growing players,
and in the course of time, will be among
the largest market of cheaper wines for the
rest of the world. The IWSR report ranks China
as the world’s seventh largest grape-based
wine producer and domestic production is
increasing with government support for the
new vineyards.
India, it is being said, now has the appetite
to make commercial wine. Consumption in
India increased by 170 percent from 2004 to
2010, and total surface area under vines doubled
between 2007 and 2010, with predicted
expansion of another 56 percent by 2014,
according to IWSR.
The Indian Grape Processing Board, a
subsidiary of the Ministry of Food Processing
in India, says it has set a target of 35 million
liters (by the end of 2015).
“What is important is that a New World is
being born – mainly China and India,” says
Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo,
which organized the world’s biggest wine and
spirits exhibition in Hong Kong in 2010.
Indian wine is also being sold in the UK’s
supermarket chain, Waitrose. On its website,
it describes Ritu Viognier as a ‘crisp, aromatic
white wine with fl oral and peach aromas.” It
is produced by United Breweries, the huge
Indian brewer that also makes Kingfisher
lager.
This is “quite a feat” for India given the fact
that viticulture in the country is relatively
new, and various other factors such as religion
and social inhibitions are at play.
Until lately wine did not fi gure very prominently
on Indian menus. But now, sauvignon
blanc, Riesling, chardonnay, merlot and shiraz
are increasingly accepted in the country.
“It’s only been 20 years since we started
making wines and 10 years since the government
liberalized the imports in 2001,”
Subhash Arora, president of New Delhi-based
Indian Wine Academy, says.
There are in all 67 grape vineyards in India
mostly concentrated in Pune and Nashik in
Maharashtra and off Bangalore in Karnataka.
Also there are some small “unoffi cial” vineyards.
Champagne Indage has been the pioneer
in making French style wine in India. Grover
Vineyards and Sula Vineyards too have
made smart strides. Recently, companies who
fall under the Indian Made Foreign Liquor
category such as Diageo, United Breweries
and Seagrams too have ventured into making
wine. Sula Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc
2010 was given a silver medal in the Decanter
World Wine Awards 2011.
The website of Champagne Indage says its
manufacturing facility at Narayangaon in the
western state of Maharashtra has a production
capacity of 15 million liters and a bottling
capacity of 15000 bottles an hour. The Sula
website says the four wineries it owns have a
combined capacity of 5 million liters. Besides
having a wide distribution network within
India, Sula exports, and also imports and distributes
wines from top global producers.
Gangan Sharma, sommelier and wine
educator at New Delhi-based Wi-Not Beverage
Solutions Pvt Ltd, says, “By the end of
2011, it (wine production in India) is expected
to touch 18 million liters. “However, a lot of
ground has to be covered,” he hastens to add.
Sharma also expresses optimism that China
and India will very soon taste each other’s
wines. “Chinese wines are certainly worth
tasting and I am sure Indians would love Chinese
wines,” he tells China Daily Asia Weekly.
“Moreover, 2011 being the year of India-China
Exchange, we anticipate the entry of some
Chinese wines into our country soon.”
“The quality of Chinese wine has improved
over the years,” Cecilia Oldne, head of international
business at Sula Vineyards, told local
media some time ago.
However, Kapil Grover whose Bengalurubased
Grover Vineyards produces 240 million
bottles a year, says things are not as simple
as that. “The wine industry in China is worth
$120 billion, whereas in India it’s only $1
billion. Moreover, grounds of cooperation
between the two countries for wine business
are not ready yet,” he says. “It will take some
years for India to be on a par with China
where the number of regular wine drinkers is
very high,” Grover says. “In India, only 2 percent
of, say 20 million people, drink wine.”
In 2006, wine consumption in China made
up 62.7 percent of the wines sipped in Asia.
It is estimated that by the end of 2011, it will
rise to 69.2 percent.
In 2008, China, including Hong Kong,
posted the highest worldwide growth: 8.720
million more cases of still light wine drunk
in one year. This trend continued in 2009
with growth of 5.29 million 9-litre cases and
should continue to increase to reach more
than 100 million 9-litre cases by 2013.
Kapil Grover’s daughter, Karishma, who
is also actively involved in the family business,
says, “As things stand today, we are way
behind China where liberalization started
10 years before it happened in our country.
Moreover, our business experience is that the
people in the Chinese wine industry do not
encourage foreign entrepreneurs to expand
in their country. They prefer doing business
with their own people.”
However, Indian Wine Academy Chief
Arora says, “For Chinese companies, cheap
wines could be a way to enter India. They can
sell their wines through many Chinese restaurants
across the country.”
“A relaxation in import duties by the Indian
government is on the cards, which should
also make things easier. Reducing the import
duty will make the Indian market more open
toward international wines,” says Sharma.
He is also optimistic about the industry in
India. “What is signifi cant is that the country
is fast growing and catching up with the leaders,”
says Sharma. “Compared with just six
in 2000, India now has 73 wineries. Between
2001 and by 2007, it grew ten folds before
slowing down because of global recession,”
Sharma says.
Some state governments are chipping in to
support the wine industry. Maharashtra, for
example, has awarded wineries the status of
food processing industry instead of alcoholic
beverages and has also abolished excise duty
on wines. Maharashtra Industrial Development
Corporation has set up wine parks at
Sangli and Nashik at a cost of Rs2,500 million
($54.9 million). The central government
has fi nalized setting up the National Wine
Board (NWB) at Pune.
The overall outlook has been buoyant for
some time in Asia including China, Japan,
South Korea, Singapore, India, Taiwan, Thailand,
the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
“Wine consumption in Asia has touched
an all-time high”, Vinexpo Asia-Pacifi c Chairman,
Dominique Hériard Dubreui, told a
conference recently.
Players like Grover Vineyards and Sula
Vineyards are gearing up to take up the challenges
and rise to world standards. According
to industry insiders, a number of wine
producers in India are already in touch with
importers across the world.
“Wine has always been seen as über chic,
a drink for people who have money and
wealth. But now there is a dramatic change in
the middle class where there is a fairly high
increase in incomes,” said Wine Park founder
Vishal Kadakia at a recent conference.
“The potential is great because the total
consumption of alcohol is over 500 million
cases,” Arora tells China Daily Asia Weekly.
Arora also seeks to highlight the fast and
vast changes taking place in a country of 1.2
billion people, where the middle class is surging,
and values and tastes are changing.
“Indian wine culture is breaking free from
rich and elite people to reach out to the
middle-class,” he says, highlighting that the
educated middle-class in India is far more
mobile than ever and exposed to western
tastes.
As more and more Indians travel overseas,
adopt new lifestyle patterns and yearn for
the good things in life, domestic wine consumption
too has correspondingly increased.
Wines made in India are priced between
Rs450-700 and imported ones could cost
upwards of Rs 2,500.
“Over time, many of the drinkers of hard
liquors will be converted to wine drinking
because the majority of the population
is under 35 and as the young people grow
older, more and more of them, especially in
the middle class, will be converting to wine,
including women. Investments have started
coming in,” adds Arora
This country is a long way from becoming
a wine destination, but given the progress
that local vineyards have made in just over a
decade, the future looks brighter. |
