The Indian wine market is estimated to be almost US$150 million and rapidly growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate(CAGR) of 20-25 per cent.The Indian wine market is categorized into domestic and imported wine which represents 70% and 30% respectively. The wine market has noticed a important consolidation in the last decade whereas bigger winery Businesses took over the small winery businesses in different states in order to decrease the taxation and overcome the differential taxation policies in states all over India. The small businesses even started to manufacture raw material grapes to bigger winery companies in order to make more commercially viable and help or support marketing and branding of their product.
PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF WINE MARKET-
India having diverse climate allows growing the variety of grape for wine such as Anabeshahi, Arkavati and Arkashyam and importing the grapes such as Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Shiraz, and Chenin Blanc. Indian wine production is around 17.6 millio liters havin an area of 6,000 acres, which is scaling up at a rate of 5 per cent. The Indian wine production mostly gathered in Maharashtra (mostly in Nashik and Sangli) with more than 85 per cent, Karnataka (mostly in Nandi Hills and Bangalore) with over 10 per cent and other states representing 5 per cent of output combined.
As the advertisement of all alcoholic drinks is not allowed in India since 2000, the companies do marketing of alcoholic drinks through events, trade shows, festivals, other products such as mineral water and social media. Wine Tourism is also one of the major areas developed by companies to sell directly to their customers at the wineries.
ALL ABOUT STARTING A WINE BUSINESS-
In order to start a wine business one have to be both determined and passionate. Running a winery involves very hard work, investing lot of time and money put in. The availability of good quality Indian wine in the market at half the price has led to a continuous and rapid increase in demand. Gradual awareness of the basic difference between wines and hard drinks is also helping the wine industry. Thus, India provides a large virgin market for wine. Therefore, we can say grape wine production is a profitable business for entrepreneurs. Firstly, grape wine manufacturing demands and ask for a full-scale manufacturing operation. And the business even demands a lot of licensing and registration from the Government agencies. Primarily, permission and certification under the PFA Act and FPO is necessary. Secondly, registration of the firm with ROC is important for the business to run. It is necessary to obtain the BIS certification for ISI mark. Then one has to register the brand name with Trademark and even have to register for GST Registration and GSTIN Number.
INVESTMENT IN WINE MARKET-
Among BRICS countries, India has the lowest per capita usage of wine: that is around 19 ml, against 2.26 litres in Brazil, 8.1 litres in Russia, 0.9 litres in China, and 7.0 litres in South Africa. In 2013-14, sales in India were about 1 million cases of grape wines and around 1.3 million sales of ‘fortified’ wines; if wine usage here continued to grow at a CAGR of above 20 per cent respectively, volumes in 2024 would be 4 million and 8 million cases respectively.The investment needed for setting up a wine business in order to make ‘fine wines’ (that is from wine grapes) varies between Rs 4 crore and Rs 7.5 crore per 100,000 litres (100 KL) – which includes land, building, plant and machinery, and working capital but excludes marketing expenses or expenses for buying land and setting up vineyards. Financial support is available by NABARD. And one can avail support regarding export from APEDA. However, in order to get cheaper quality fortified wine, there is a requirement of an investment of Rs 1.25 crore and Rs 2.5 crore per 100 KL. Apart from NABARD, there are several banks where one can get financial support for the setting up of wine market in India.
