India to witness three-fold increase in wine consumption
 | At a Vinexpo curtain raiser at the Imperial Hotel yesterday at which Sommelier India was present this was announced. Major Indian newspapers like The Hindu and The Financial Express are reporting it too via PTI. The wine consumption in India is set to treble by 2011 to touch 17 million litres per annum. This is according to a study conducted by UK-based International Wines and Spirits Records (IWSR). |
"Contrary to popular belief that only imported wines are mainly consumed, most wines consumed in the country is locally produced, accounting for 75 per cent of the total volume," wine exhibitor VinExpo Chairman Dominique Heriard Dubreuil told PTI.
Pictured above are Mrs. Dominique Hériard Dubreuil, Chairman, Vinexpo Asia-Pacific & Mr. Robert Beynat, Chief Executive, Vinexpo Asia-Pacific who introduced the report.
Around a quarter of the wine consumed in the country is imported and France accounts for 41.7 per cent of wines imported by India.
Despite a rapid growth seen in the last few years, India ranks a lowly 77 in terms of wine consumption in the world, the IWSR study said.
The country accounts for 0.8 per cent of the total wine consumed in Asia as compared to China (including Hong Kong) which accounts for more than 62.7 per cent market share.
The total consumption of wines in China in 2006 was around 479 million litres as compared to six million litres in India, which is even behind smaller Asian countries such as Thailand, Taiwan and Philippines, the study pointed out.
With wine culture picking up in India and consumption set to rise, VinExpo is organising a wine exhibition in Hongkong to facilitate trade of wines in Asia.
High growth in wine consumption notwithstanding, spirits will continue to dominate the Indian market as the country consumes a billion litres of the liquor annually.
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