One might say it’s like carrying coals to Newcastle, but increasingly Indian wine brands are making inroads into traditional wine-making markets such as Europe and the UK.
Make inroads into traditional wine-making nations
BANGALORE: One might say it’s like carrying coals to Newcastle, but increasingly Indian wine brands are making inroads into traditional wine-making markets such as Europe and the UK.
Pankaj Muthi, wine industry expert and management consultant, said wine biggies such as Sula and Grover’s are getting aggressive in their international foray. “They see a lot of demand for their wines picking up globally,” he added.
Rajiv Samant, managing director, Sula wines, said the perception of Indian wines in international markets is changing. “A few years ago it was not that easy to sell Indian wines abroad, but in the last two years they have become much more accepted. We have got fantastic success in Japan and London,” he said.
Presently, India exports less than 10% of its total produce of five million litres of wine annually. A sizeable chunk goes to the US, the UK and France. New markets such as Japan, Dubai and South Africa have also emerged.
Bangalore-based Grover Wines will soon be jostling for space with Sake and Yamanashi wines in Japanese stores. Kapil Grover, director Grover Vineyards Ltd, said, “We have already identified distributors who will make our wines available across Japan by the year end.”
International markets are becoming attractive because wine consumption in the country is still low. Indians consumed more than 300 million cases of beer, 90 million cases of whisky and other spirits in 2007-08, while wine consumption stood at around 0.8 million cases.
The Indian wine market is getting crowded with the presence of foreign and domestic players such as United Breweries, Diageo and Pernod Ricard. The Rs 500-crore domestic wine industry is growing at 20% annually, and will touch 9 million litres by 2010.
According to Muthi, who authored a report recently on the export potential of Indian, foreign vinery and brand acquisitions are another way Indian wine makers are looking for easy access into international markets. This year, Chateau Indage had acquired Australian brand Vinecrest and UK-based Darlington Wines.
Nishant Kapoor, general manager, Wine Society of India, said exports are being driven in part due to the increasing presence of Indian expat communities and restaurants abroad.
But the game may be limited to the big players, for some time, as smaller wine makers will not find the overseas markets viable given the huge marketing and distribution expenses involved.
France, at present, is the leading wine consuming nation in the world. According to International Wine and Spirit Record, an international research company, by 2010 Americans will consume nearly 3.8 billion cases of wine, making the US the largest wine consuming country in the world, ahead of Italy and France. Asia, led by China will consume around 5% of the world wines by 2011.
n_pranav@dnaindia.net
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