New Grape Processing and Wine Policy soon

The Karnataka government, which is aiming to grow grape cultivation to about 5,000 acres in the next three years, is planning to revise its existing Grape Processing and Wine Policy of 2007 and relaunch it during the next financial year. The new policy will incorporate several new clauses to attract huge investment in the grape wine industry, a top government official said.

“We have identified wine as an important area in the state, wherein we can attract more investment in the grape processing, help farmer grow more wine variety grapes and encourage the consumer. The existing Grape Processing and Wine Policy introduced in 2007 will expire during the next fiscal and we are in the process of revising it,” Vandita Sharma, principal secretary, department of horticulture said.

She said the department is in dialogue with the excise department and the commerce and industries department to simplify the existing policy. “We will take the help of commerce and industries department to fine-tune our existing policy. In the new policy, we are looking at offering land from the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) for those who come forward to set up wineries in the state,” she told Business Standard. Presently, the promoters are required to acquire their own land for setting up the wineries.

The new wine policy will also include the incentives and concessions provided under the industry policy. The department of horticulture is currently working out the details of the new policy and would announce it in the next four months, she said.

During the International Wine Festival to be held in Bangalore from March 2 to 4, the department of horticulture is planning to sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) with some new investors from north Karnataka and Chennai besides a couple of French companies for setting up new wineries in the state. These investors had shown interest during the Global Agri-business investors’ meet, she said.

After the introduction of the Karnataka Grape Processing and Wine Policy in 2007 and setting up of Karnataka Wine Board (KWB) subsequently, the state government has attracted 12 new wineries in the state. The installed capacity of all 14 wineries in the state is around 2.5 million litres, which is set to be doubled in the next two years as five more new wineries are in the pipeline, K G Suresh Chandran, Managing Director, KWB said.

Amruth Distilleries and John Distilleries are planning to set up new wineries in Belgaum and Ramnagar districts, while Dr Rughi is setting up a new unit in Belgaum district besides two more companies, which are in the pipeline, he said.

“There is a huge scope for expansion of wine production in the state. The wine board has identified new geographies in the state for increasing the cultivation of wine variety grapes. We have recently announced Cauvery Valley, which includes the districts of Chamarajanagar, Mysore and Mandya for growing wine variety grapes. We will be adding another 3,000 acres of area under wine variety grape cultivation in the next three years to take the total area to around 5,000 acres,” he added.

Presently, Karnataka accounts for 15 per cent of the area under grape cultivation at about 17,500 hectares with an annual production of 320,000 tonnes.