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Confirming this, the last Chairman on record Jagdish Holkar says the mandate for the IGPB expired on March 31 and nothing has been heard from the Board or the Ministry of Food Processing under whose Aegis it was formed. Although his Facebook Profile Status shows he is the Chairman of the Indian Grape Processing Board, he says he is not the Chairman anymore and the Board has been in limbo. Siraj Hussain, who was P.S. to the Minister of Food Processing Industry and overseeing the operations, has been transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, he adds. There is also a change of guard at the level of the Joint Secretary who directly supervised the operations on behalf of the ministry.
A call to the MOFPI office ended in a terse reply saying the Board had been abolished. delWine has sought an appointment with the Hon’ble Minister Mrs. Harsimran Kaur Badal to ascertain the facts and discuss the possibility of reviving the Board. ‘Abolition’ does not necessarily mean a permanent disbanding which would be like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It will be a blunder underlying the myopic vision of the government and a monumental embarrassment to India which talks progressive but walks regressive.
Producers’ Contribution
Analysts will come out with various reasons for the debacle but one of the explicit reasons for the failure has been the lack of contribution by the industry -financially or otherwise. They have been constantly harping on subsidies and handouts. General belief is that the organisation was politicised and polarised from the very beginning with feeble chances of success. One hoped that beyond the bickering, the producers and the government would act jointly to promote the industry which is a boon for employment of farmers and has a huge potential for exports, and also reduce hard liquor consumption as the younger drinkers become more sophisticated in their life styles.
The mandate of the Board was to have joint industry participation with 50/50 contribution and government taking a back seat gradually. The mutual distrust was visible almost from the very beginning with the government not willing to let the control slide away and the producers shying away from any contribution which is otherwise a common international practice. According to Holkar, Sharad Pawar, the then Agriculture Minister had even agreed to 85/15 split (which would be more than fair, if true). The industry just did not come up with the financial support and the government might have finally cut the umbilical cord. Interestingly, the better established raisin producers had agreed to contribute a sum of Rs. 2.5 million a year for 3 years but the response from wine producers was practically nil, according to Holkar.
Maharashtra Wine Board in the making?
In the meanwhile, Holkar claims he and a group of producers of Nashik have started focusing on the Maharashtra government for the formation of a Wine Board on the lines of Karnataka Wine Board (KWB) which has been fairly successful in making Karnataka more pro-wine and in helping the local producers with more friendly production policies and to market their wines. Jagdish Holkar says that the KWB has been successful to help the domestic producers in the Indian market and there is no reason for a similar one in Maharashtra not to succeed. ‘Each to his own’ seems to be the mantra where exports or brand Wines of India is concerned.
Membership of International Organisation of Vines and Wines (OIV)
One of the major casualties of the tragic death of IGPB will be our relationship with OIV. India became a member only a couple of years ago of this premier UN type-organisation that has 49 member states-growing eating or raisin grapes or producing wine from wine grapes. The membership is cumbersome and through a lengthy process wherein only governments may be members. India became a member state through the Ministry of Food Processing Industry with IGPB only facilitating it. The membership was after due process that took almost two years and was unanimous by the OIV member states where a majority of members have to accept the application. It was creditable that the application was accepted unanimously. The final approval was after the cabinet approval and through the Presidential decree signed by the former President Pratibha Patil.
There is a nominal annual membership of €14,000 a year for India. Although some questions are being raised from the not-so-well-informed quarters about how and who will make the payment or whether it will continue its membership, it should be stressed that Government of India is the member and obviously the bureaucrats and politicians understand the importance of international commitments. Although India was conspicuous by its absence at the OIV General Assembly meeting last month, perhaps due to IGPB being in a limbo, hopefully this was a one-time faux pas. One does not need to know missile technology to comprehend that if funds were a problem any one producer could have been requested to represent India at their own expense by the Ministry of Food Processing Industry.
General global impression has been that OIV would have an Indian President (usually a wine producer) one day and it would be only prudent to keep the stakeholders actively involved in the working of OIV which provides unlimited structured knowledge of wines, laws, scientific data and networking possibilities.
IGPB and Wines of India
One of the main objectives of IGPB was to promote Brand India overseas. They have been successful to some extent through participation in various international shows and tastings at various embassies and other forums. However, there is a lot that still needs to be done. Big players would be able to promote their wines on their own as they have marketing budgets. It’s the smaller producers who make good quality and endeavour to improve further but are not in a position to spend money on promotion and need hand-holding for the next decade or two.
The process initiated by IGPB would come to naught without their functioning. Earlier APEDA had not made any discernible progress in the area as mandated by the government. Incidentally, every producer nation has some form of agency promoting wines from the country. Wines of Chile, ICEX (Spain), California Wine Institute, Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB), Wines of South Africa (WOSA) are just a few such examples of government-industry-run organisations where the industry is required to contribute, sometimes by law and based on the production volumes. AWMB runs very smoothly as an efficient professional organisation with a national staff of under 20 and has changed the image of Austrian wines since the Board was formed around 25 years ago and has helped significantly in the increase of export and price realisation per liter due to efficient and professional approach.
There are also many problems faced by domestic producers, one of them being the need to change the government’s perception of equating wine with liquor. It is relevant to recall that despite its efforts and desire to name the Board as the Indian Wine Board, it failed to do so because of the backlash feared from the anti-alcohol lobbies and even though Karnataka Wine Board was successfully formed before and has been running without any political problems, the rather trite name -IGPB- was finally decided upon.
There are anomalies in law at the State level, many of which may not be easy to change, wine and alcohol being a State subject but an organisation of the stature of IGPB could take up the cases for the industry as a whole. As an example, Delhi Excise Department has been unusually harsh this fiscal year and has doubled the label registration fee from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 200,000 a year (although capped at Rs. 10,00,000/ Rs. 1 million, same as last year) making it practically impossible for the smaller producers to enter the Delhi market, leaving only the big players to operate. This reeks of an anti-competition measure contrary to the government policy on fair competition.
There is another anomaly of allowing sales to the restaurants strictly on a case (12 bottles) basis and not by bottle whereas imported wines are allowed by the bottle. This is a legacy going on without any pertinent reason in today’s scenario where Indian wines can be more expensive than many imported wines. If one has to conduct a tasting of all the Sauvignon Blancs in India in a restaurant, one has to order a case and not the bottle whereas a single bottle of imported wine may be ordered.
This is grossly unfair with no logic and a body like IGPB ought to have been involved deeply in this.
FSSAI- standards, OIV and IGPB
It is not a matter of pride that since the FSSAI became active in 2008 and the IGPB which was formed in 2009, nothing substantive has been done to formulate the standards for wine in 5-6 years with both the agencies trying to flex their muscles. IGPB has conceded on more than one occasion that the real authority is with the FSSAI but IGPB was expected to give its recommendation. The bare fact is that there are no standards. This despite the fact that OIV has a list of specifications which could be adopted with modifications even if as guidelines to start with. As of now, the draft regulations are reportedly being formulated by FSSAI which supposedly is following the Codex international specifications which are in congruence with OIV rules. It may be mentioned here that OIV is not a regulatory body but only a recommending body and can give information or have the member states connect with each other. Their role is equally important for the export of eating grapes.
Status
Meanwhile, according to Holkar, the industry is in a happy situation in the short term with demand for grapes and bulk wine at an all time high, making it a win-win situation for everyone.
No Politics Please
In the absence of any clear-cut directions or policies, many rumours have started doing the rounds- starting from the central government being anti-alcohol and wine and thus creating hurdles for growth. People in the know claim that the government will is lacking. There is also a murmur that the Ministry of Food Processing is being run by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal who is not from the BJP but a coalition partner Shiromani Akali Dal and perhaps does not get as much co-operation from the Cabinet. In several meetings with the IGPB and producers she has been known to be sympathetic to the wine industry and has been reported to be very positive but has not been able to cut the ice with the Union Cabinet in decisions that are needed for the growth of the domestic industry. It would be most unfortunate if the Board remains in limbo or goes down the drain due to political contingencies.
One hopes that a big black mark in the history of wines in India with a great potential to be an important player in the global market and providing wages to thousands of farmers will be avoided and the current status is temporary and a pit stop and not a fatal crash.
Subhash Arora |