BANGALORE: In a bid to bring more area under grape cultivation and promote wine market, the Government has decided to establish two wine parks in the State.

The Government has also declared grape growing districts of Bangalore Rural, Bangalore Urban and Kolar districts as "Nandi Valley" while Bijapur, Bagalkot, Belgaum districts as "Krishna Valley."

One wine park would be established in each valley. The Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) would acquire the land to set up parks. It would be established on public-private partnership model. The department would finalise the details soon, Minister for Horticulture Shashikanth Naik told The Hindu.

The State Cabinet meeting held last Thursday had cleared the new wine policy (2007). The State budget for 2006-07 proposed to evolve the wine manufacturing policy. The policy was formulated with the involvement of the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Processing and Export Corporation (KAPPEC), Bangalore.

About 9,700 hectares of area is under grape cultivation in the State and the estimated annual production is 1.67 lakh tonnes. Besides the "valley" districts, farmers grow grapes in Koppal, Chikmagalur and Mysore districts. The State produces three major varieties of grapes — Thomson seedless, Anab-E-Shahi Dilkush and Bangalore Blue. About 6,000 hectares is under Thomson seedless variety only.

Mr. Naik said the policy proposed to establish a wine board for the wine industry and other grape processing units. A sum of Rs. 10 crore would be diverted from the Horticulture Department to set up the board, he said.

The policy would offer a lot of financial incentives to grape growers and the wine industry. The grape growers would be offered incentives to set up wine manufacturing industries and processing units.

The Government would provide 50 per cent subsidy to adopt modern technology by wine manufacturing units. Subsidy would also be given to set up pre-cooling units, cold storages and residue analysis lab. The Food Processing Department of the Union Government had been providing 25 per cent subsidy to set up cold storages, he said.

To promote the concept of "wine tourism" in grape-growing regions, industries would be allowed to sell wine to tourists who visit the factory premises. The Minister said the policy had liberalised the licensing system. Those who wanted to set up wine industry could obtain the license by submitting applications at the Deputy Commissioner's office. Licences would be issued within 30 days of submission of the applications.

In the country, Bangalore city is one of the largest wine consumption cities.

According to a survey conducted by the consultancy firm Brounens in July 2006, Bangalore has the third largest market for wines in India after Mumbai and Delhi. The city consumes around 31,000 cases per annum as against one lakh cases in Mumbai and around 54,000 cases in Delhi.

While the domestic wine brands have witnessed an increase in sales by 33 per cent in Bangalore, the imported wine segment has reported an increase by seven per cent over the previous decade.

The total annual wine consumption in India is presently estimated to be about 0.6 million cases (a case contains 12 bottles), growing at the rate of 25 to 30 per cent annually, the survey said.

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