|
| Wine industry still under recession hangover |
| Hrishikesh Joshi / Mumbai/ Pune Feb 04, 2010, 02:49 IST |
|
While champagne bottles have been popped up in various industries to celebrate their recovery from recession, the wine industry in Maharashtra is still enduring the bitter taste of the downturn. The sector is incurring huge losses this year also with poor sales and drop in grape production as millions of litres of wine is waiting for customers.
There was a major drop in wine sales last year. In the year 2009, total wine production was 1.30 crore litres. The recession and terrorist attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008 led to a serious slump in customer demand, which saw two crore liters of wine lying unsold.
The total value of the unsold wine is more than Rs 150 crore. Due to the slump in, most of the wineries are not ready to crush grapes for the new season. This is a threat for entire wine industry in the state. Maharashtra's total wine production capacity is 3.58 crore litres per year and wine grapes are cultivated in around 8000-acres. Farmers are under duress as they suffered heavy crop losses due to rain in November, which saw production reduce by 45 per cent.
There are total 68 wineries in Maharashtra. The production is mainly concentrated in Pune, Nashik and Sangli districts.
Vijay Munde, promoter of Blue Star winery in Pune said," This year both farmers and vineyard owners are into trouble. Last year, government has agreed to give some financial help to wineries in the form of soft capital loan in association with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
“But, it is not implemented yet. This year we are facing excess production of wine which is not sold due to slowdown. In Maharashtra, more than two crore litres of wine is lying unsold. Many wineries are not even in condition to pay farmers and they have signed agreements with the farmers for next 3 to 5 years so they have to crush grapes under any circumstances."
But some wine producers are still optimistic and are expecting growth in future. Sula Vineyards, a leading wine producer in Maharashtra who recently completed 10 years in the wine business, has targeted production of four million bottles next year. Rajeev Samant, founder and CEO of Sula Vineyards said, " Last year was really bad for wine industry. Plus, November rain was again a major set back for farmers and has affected grape production very badly. Grape rates have dropped by Rs 5. This year we are offering Re 25 per kg for red grapes and Rs 20-22 per kg for white grapes. This crushing season, we have 3200 tones of grapes ,which is 45 per cent less than last year. There are different ballgames for farmers and we have 10-year contract with the farmers. Sula is planning to produce around four million bottles in this year."
According to Samant, in India wine consumption is very less - only 11 ml per capita - and he is expecting it to reach 100 ml per capita in next 10 years. Sula exports wine to the countries like Germany, Japan, Russia and South Africa.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
