Grape growers seek direct market channel

The Nashik District Grape Growers' Association has urged the government to create effective marketing system to sell grapes directly to consumers in Mumbai, Pune and other cities in the country.

Grape growers are a worried lot given the fact that the recently-ended season saw falling prices.

"Earlier, grape growers were known as rich farmers, but this situation has completely changed now. Grape growers spend around Rs 85,000 per acre for cultivation. But due to fall in prices of grapes, it has become difficult to earn even production cost. In the last grape season (January-April 2005), wholesale rates of low quality grapes were Rs 10 per kg, while wholesale rates of good quality grapes in the recently ended season (January-April 2006) were between Rs 5-7 per kg only.

"We had also expected export of grapes at Rs 40-45 per kg, but grape export rates in the recently ended grape season were less by around Rs 15 per kg," said Balasaheb Kshirsagar, president, Nashik District Grape-growers' Association.

"The grapes sold at wholesale rates of Rs 5-7 per kg, were sold at Rs 15-20 per kg in retail market. Hence, we are realising the need for a more effective marketing and this is an area where grape growers lag. We have urged the government to remove the middlemen and create an effective marketing system in major cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Delhi so that farmers can directly sell their grapes to consumers and get proper prices," Kshirsagar said.

"The government gives packages for onion and sugar, then why don't they do the same for grapes," he demanded.

Nashik district is known for producing large quantity of grapes and it exports 55 per cent of total grapes exported from the country. In 2005-06, the area under grape cultivation in the district was 30,000 hectares and total investment in vineyards was estimated at Rs. 1,400 crore.

Around 6 lakh metric tonnes of grapes were produced in the district and grapes productivity was 20 mt per hectare. Nashik has also emerged as wine capital of India. Of the country's total 46 wineries, Maharashtra's share is 43, including 22 in Nashik.