More wine from Himachal next year

You could soon be sipping wine made from the choicest Himalayan grapes, as a top wine firm has decided to set up a wine unit in Himachal Pradesh.

"This week we have signed a deal with the state government to set up a wine unit at Nagwain in the Mandi district," said SC Chougule, chairman of the Indage of group of industries.

"According to the deal, Indage will also set up a fruit wine unit in Pragatinagar. Each unit will cost around Rs 50 crore."

Claiming to have over 80 per cent of the market share in the Indian wine industry, Chougule said, "The wine produced in the Himalayan foothills will be the finest in the country. Trials have proved that the crucial acidity level never falls in grapes grown on this soil."

"The most significant part of the deal is that we will soon enter into a farming agreement with farmers in the vicinity of the plant, to supply us wine grapes for ten years," Chougule told Business Standard.

"Farmers will feel secure, as Indage will buy the entire grape yield for ten years, and will ensure reasonable profit to the grower, apart from distributing loans at low rates," he explained.

"In the first year of production, we hope to crush enough wine grapes to meet the demand for our 3000 MT capacity plant at Nagwain," he said.

"Indage will import some seeds from France, while the rest will be brought from Maharashtra. The two prominent wine grape varieties to be grown in Himachal are Cherdomy and Penortnair," he added.

The sowing deadline has been set for March next year, and production will begin two years hence.

Besides the Nagwain plant in the Mandi district, 180 km from here, Indage has also been allowed to set up a fruit-wine unit at Pragatinagar in Shimla district, 55 km from here. Fruit wine will be produced from local fruits like peach, plum, pear and apricot among others (but not grapes).

This agreement between the state government and the Indage group of industries comes after a gap of six years, when the previously ruling BJP government had signed a deal to set up the wine unit and a fruit-wine unit, but no progress had been made since the Congress government came into power.

According to the earlier agreement, the state government had an equity of 20 per cent while another 20 per cent equity was to be held by local farmers, and the rest by the Indage group of industries.

"But now the government has pulled out of the deal and the two wine units will be set up by Indage alone. As promised, after coming into production, we will allow 20 per cent equity to be held by local farmers," said Chougule.

"Wine production is limited to Maharashtra, which has 35 units The rest of the country has only one more such unit at Bangalore. The plant in Nagwain in Himachal will be the latest (37 th)," he said.

Indage depends on 1600 contract farmers for the supply of wine grapes in Maharashtra, to produce wine at several of its units in the state. This is exported by the company to 67 countries.