| The pilot project is expected to begin with five of the city’s 250 Hopcom outlets by creating wine boutiques, according to Mr. Gowda who was speaking at the inauguration of the 2-day National seminar organised by the Karnataka Wine Board and State Department of Horticulture on Thursday. The delay has been due to the excise license for which they had applied a couple of months ago.
It is not clear why the proposal was submitted only two months ago when the announcement was made last June, when it was reported by delWine
which had praised the Karnataka Wine Board for taking yet another step to popularize wine as a food product by announcing the proposal to set up wine boutiques in Bangalore at the grocery outlets of HOPCOMS - Horticultural Producers' Marketing and Processing Society Ltd. - and bring Karnataka a step closer to being the most dynamic and progressive wine-savvy State in India.
Talking about resistance from the employees, Gowda said, "They think the footfalls to their outlets will reduce as most of their customers are women who might not like to visit a shop where wine is sold. But that's not true,” adding that this could in fact help expand their market base for them.
"We are still a conservative society. If we start selling wine in a vegetable shop, neighbours may object to it. Our regular customers might turn their back on us," a hapless Hopcoms store manager reportedly told TOI. He expressed the fear that women who come for shopping may not enter anymore as ‘liquor’ is being sold. Gowda does not believe so. "Women, more than men, consume wine. So selling wine at Hopcoms outlets won't affect them. Rather, their turnover will increase if wine boutiques are started at these outlets," he said.
Admitting that the project might face initial resistance from the public too, he said Hopcoms outlets can market wine better. "There is a need to promote marketing of wine through boutiques. If we get clearance from the excise department to sell wine in Hopcoms, we can start wine boutiques in Hopcoms from January 1 itself," he said.
Gowda also said that liquor shops must not be called wine shops. "We have to first change the name boards of most liquor shops in the city as they proclaim they are wine shops. This clause has to be included in Karnataka Wine Policy 2007, for the better marketing of wine industry in Karnataka.” This is one of the reasons why a common man who does not drink alcohol equates wine with liquor. For as far back as one remembers, the liquor shops throughout India have been called wine shops when wine was unheard of as a beverage and was not available.
Horticultural Producers’ Marketing and Processing Society Ltd. sells fresh fruits and vegetables from the farmers at about 250 outlets in Bangalore directly to the consumers, giving an advantage to them as fresh produce is available at lower prices and the farmer gets higher margins by cutting out the middle men.
Customers will not be allowed to taste or drink wine at the outlet because of the current excise laws but they can buy and carry out the sealed bottles from the outlets. To ensure that the wine does not spoil because of poor storage, KWB has decided to provide the temperature controlling facility for the bottles at the outlets.
Need for Academic Institutions
The Joint Secretary of Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Mr. U. Venkateswarlu said that the country lacks serious academic options for the study of wine. “We do not study the sector as an academic stream – how grapes are grown, issues with production and marketing strategies. There is a need to develop a full-fledged course about growing grapes, management of farms, wine processing and marketing of wine. Such courses are there in western countries but we lag behind," he said. The State Government is considering introducing oenology as an academic discipline in universities so that wine could be studied formally as a subject, as is the norm in all wine producing countries.
Memorandum from Grape Growers
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Grape Growers Association has submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Wine Board requesting that the Karnataka Grape Processing and Wine Policy of 2007 be implemented for another 10 years to encourage the faltering industry. Seeking subsidized electricity supply to the industry, the memorandum also suggested that wine should be allowed to be sold at winery premises. (Incidentally, Maharashtra allows such sales). The memorandum also notes that while Indian wine has the image of being of low quality in the international market, it is considered too expensive for the domestic market.
According to the memorandum, wine produced as long as five years ago is still lying unsold in Karnataka’s wineries which have now reduced their production. With the fall in demand for wine grapes, many farmers are going back to growing eating grapes; a gripe often heard in Maharashtra as well.
Subhash Arora
Tags: Hopcoms, Karnataka Wine Board, Horticultural Producers' Marketing and Processing Society, Karnataka, Karnataka Grape Growers Association, Karnataka Grape Processing and Wine Policy
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