In the last seven years, the grape wine export has increased almost seven-fold from 75,000 litres in FY02 to 525,000 litres in FY 2007-08. Due to continuous rise in grape wine export, the State's grape wine production has also increased ten-fold in the last seven years from 200,000 litres in FY02 to 2.11 crore litres in FY08.
In FY08, 536,000 litres of grape wine were exported from India. Of which, 525,000 litres were exported from Maharashtra alone to France, Italy, Germany, US, New York, UK, Singapore and Belgium.
Speaking to Business Standard, Jaideep Kale, technical coordinator, Grape Wine Park, Maharashtra said, "Grape wine production got a big boost with the coming into effect of Maharashtra grape processing industrial policy in 2001. Today, out of total grape wine production in India, Maharashtra accounts for almost 97 per cent. In FY08, the total wine production of grape wine in India was 2.25 crore litres, out of which Maharashtra's share was 2.11 crore litres."
In FY08, Maharashtra registered around 59.84 per cent growth in wine production to 2.11 crore litres, against 1.32 crore litres in FY07," he said
Of the country's total 61 wineries, Maharashtra's share is 58. As many as 30 winieries are in Nashik, 11 in Pune, 10 in Sangli, 3 in Solapur, 3 in Buldhana and one in Usmanabad.
Out of total consumption of grape wine in India, around 80 per cent wine consumption is from the major cities- Mumbai (39%), Delhi (23%), Banglore (9%) and Goa (9%), while the rest of the grape wine consumption i.e 20 per cent is from the rest of India.
"The Indian market is way behind heavy wine drinking countries like France and Italy, where consumption of wine is 60-70 litres, in US 25 litres, in Australia 25 litres, while in China consumption is 4 litres per person per year. But the Indian market has been growing at about 30-40 per cent every year and it is expected to grow at this rate for the next 5-6 years," Kale said.
