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Prowein is fast becoming the most important wine show in Europe, especially since Vinexpo is a bi-annual Show and Vinitaly is focussed more on the Italian wines. In fact, Italians are one of the top exhibitors at Prowein what with the German market being an important market for Italian wines.
 Sula and Grover have confirmed their participation according to Xavier Rebello, Executive director of Messe Düsseldorf India Pvt Ltd, whose principles in Düsseldorf organise the Show. A couple of other spirits manufacturers and an accessories maker have also confirmed exhibiting their products. Both the wineries will have their stalls side by side in Hall 9. ‘There were not enough numbers to warrant a different Hall and the two had desired to be next to each other,’ says Rebello in a meeting to discuss the Show.
Confirming it Shardul Ghogale, Manager - International Business Sula Vineyards informs delWine, ‘We will indeed participate at Prowein. We are yet to decide on which brands to showcase but will keep you updated as we get Sulafest 2015 (being organised on 7-8 February in Nashik) coordination out of the way. As of now, Cecilia and I are scheduled to attend with the expectations that Prowein has now reached a stage where it is one of the most recognizable wine trade events with a focus on commercial wine trade and business development across the globe. Also, with Germany being a strong wine importing nation and with high levels of consumption, this market is gaining more and more importance as an export destination for Indian wine.’
Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO of Grover Zampa Vineyards, who was in Hong Kong for his WSET 4 exams when delWine contacted him, also affirmed the same. ‘In most likelihood, we will showcase the following wines: Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection, La Reserve range and Art collection range,’ he informed us.
Fratelli Wines did partake in Prowein earlier but reportedly is not there this time. Confirming this when I met him yesterday at the Launch of BW Hotelier magazine, Kapil Sekhri, one of the partners and a Director of Fratelli Wines told me, ‘we will not participate in Prowein this time. We did participate before and found that focus is to look into wines which are available on ground. It's better to look for an importer before one participates.’
Veral Pancholia, Director of Mercury Winery near Nashik says although they are not participating this time, they had participated twice earlier. ‘Our Aryya label had a good response and we have our distributor today in the Central Europe thanks to Prowein. We would still like to participate but there is no support from Government as offered in other countries which like to promote their wines.’ He feels, ‘Indian wines need to be showcased at more and more wine exhibitions abroad so that Brand India image gets a boost. As an individual producer it is not viable for us as the Prowein is organised to showcase countries and even regions but not individual producers; this concept seems to be missing for the Indian industry. Initially APEDA used to promote but it has gradually faded out due to lack of co-ordination within the producers to jointly promote the industry through a single window.’
Ravi Gurnani, Director of York Winery in Nashik also echoes similar sentiments as he says, ‘we participated at Prowein back in 2011 under the aegis of the Indian Grape Processing Board (IGPB). It was a pretty good fair given that most of Europe comes for buying wines at this Show. We haven't been there since and have no plans to go back under the umbrella unless it’s under the "Indian Wines" umbrella. That would make it more cost effective as well.’
IGPB seems to have come to the end of the road and presently its very existence is in jeopardy. It took part in Hong Kong. London and Prowein wine shows, using government subsidies and offering very good proposals and support to whosoever wanted to participate, with fair amount of success.
This should explain the travails of Xavier Rebello, Executive director of Messe Düsseldorf India Pvt Ltd, whose principles in Düsseldorf organise the Show that is running for the 21st year, since its debut in 1994. He is truly flummoxed with the low participation by the Indian imported wine industry for one of the most important and successful wine shows in the world. Despite his efforts and expectation of receiving confirmed bookings and a 63 sq meters participation from the wine industry, only 14 square meters have been booked - with Sula taking 6 sq mts and Grover with the balance 8 sq mts.
‘We organise around 20 shows every year and Prowein is relatively smaller. Indian manufacturers normally come forward to participate for most of the other relevant shows with a huge interest, some taking up to 700 sq mts space! And these are Indian companies exporting their products to Europe and beyond,’ says Rebello. Barely a couple of decades they were importing the same products that they are now exporting.
He has learnt the hard way that the participation by Indian wineries depends upon the support from the government which they claim they do not receive. (This could be debatable because earlier when IGPB was giving support the response used to be lukewarm, as the officials then used to complain. He has a valid point-the exports from these other manufacturing companies went up many-fold during the last decade and more because of their daring and dauntless spirits.’ The Indian wine industry does have a great export potential and participation in such fairs is almost a pre-requisite- of course coupled with quality and price competitiveness but is strapped of funds.
It may be too late to participate for the wine or spirits producers this year in any case-the space has been sold out. But it may still be possible to plan a visit to the Show by the producers, importers and F & B personnel from India.
It may be worth your while to pencil in the dates –March 15-17 at Düsseldorf for the annual Show- Prowein and plan a visit. For details visit www.prowein.com.
Subhash Arora |