Grape wine industry in India: development, status and prospect

The Indian wine industry is growing rapidly in terms of area covered under wine grapes, production and export of wines. At present 90 wineries are established in India. About 34,000 ha area is covered under wine grapes and producing around 17 million L of wine per year. Major states in the country for wine grapes and wine production are Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and north-eastern States. The paper covers in brief the development of the wine industry in India before 2000 and after including ancient period of wine in India. More elaborative work on Indian grape industry including wine was started with the establishment of ICAR-NRC-Grapes, Pune during 1997-1998. Policy measures of the state and Union Government of India for the development and prospect of the wine Industry are covered in the paper. Education, training and extension work toward wine industry is also elaborated in this paper apart from availability of machinery, tools, equipments and other accessories for making wines. Investment made in this sector has reached to more than 450 crores. Wine is now exported to France, Italy, Germany, USA, the UK, Singapore and Belgium. APEDA (Agriculture Processed Food Export Development Authority) and ICAR-NRC-Grapes Pune are monitoring export of Indian grapes and wine and also the food safety aspect.