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Managing Director of the Wine Board, Dr. Krishna said
the board also had plans to encourage contract farming, which has been
the back bone of Maharashtra wine industry for over a decade now. To help
the growers get the right price for their grapes, the board has announced
the support price of Rs.45 a kg. At present the wine grapes are available
from Rs.25- 38 a kg. in Maharashtra.
Dr. Krishna said the Board had imported French grape
varieties and was sure they would grow well in Karnataka. He added that
the board expected to get 4.5 tonnes per acre, which was more or less
equivalent to the yield in France. He said over 200 acres had been brought
under cultivation with these imported grape varieties.
The board was also planning to hold a Wine Fest every
year to attract international wine companies and consumers.The board was
also planning to have a series of "taverns" only for marketing
wine. These establishments could only sell wine and no other liquor. The
deputy commissioners of all districts would be empowered to give licences
to the taverns. As a pilot project, the board would also set up a model
winery unit at the Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Research
at Hesaraghatta here, which would impart training to the growers to set
up their own wineries.
Chandigarh has already taken lead in this concept with
license for taverns made available to the shops selling liquor, at very
reasonable prices. Wines and snacks can be sold at these quasi wine bars
with practically no mark ups over the retail prices.
Agriculture Secretary Mr. A. Ramaswamy is hopeful that
the grapes grown in Karnataka and wines made from Karnataka grown grapes
would find an attractive export market. Nine varieties of grapes in a
total area of 95,000 hectares are grown in the State with an annual output
of 1,80,000 tonnes.
Chairman of Horticultural Co-operative Marketing (HOPCOMS),
Mune Gowda is confident of Bangalore's own exclusive variety "Bangalore
Blue" being suitable for wine-making. He was speaking at the Grape
Mela they had organised on Monday.
He said HOPCOMS would encourage growers to increase
the planting of Bangalore Blue variety and also set up their own wineries.
He said this variety was only suitable for making wine and "it was
the only chance for the grape growers to add value to their produce".
Meanwhile, industry figures show that Karnataka has
pipped its neighbour, Andhra Pradesh as the largest Indian made liquor
(IML) market with volumes sky-rocketing after it announced a ban on arrack
sales in August last year. Karnataka consumed 3.2 million cases ( 9 litre)
in November against Andhra Pradesh's 3 million. These figures also include
the rather dismal quantity of sale of wine. Tamil Nadu stands third with
monthly depletion of around 2.6 lmillion cases.
The single largest selling IML brand in Karnataka is
the economy priced Original Choice from John Distillers with monthly lifting
of over 0.5 million cases. This distillary has also started producing
Big Banyan wines in Goa with the 2006 vintage already out last year.
Whether Bangalore Blue grapes can make good quality
wines has yet to be proved. They may be ok for low end table wines but
the officials will do well to go easy on promoting such concepts without
proper trials and results. Also by keeping the support price of grapes
at much higher than is existent in Maharashtra means that the cost of
making wine will go up in Karnataka and may make them non-competitive.
The Board should also take a decision on whether to charge higher excise
duties from wines from Maharshtra where Karnataka -produced wines suffer
an unjustifiable excise duty of 150% of the manufacturing cost, making
them non-competitive in Maharashtra, the biggest wine market in India
- Editor
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