New Zealand's wine industry to be used as a model in India

Twenty years ago New Zealand barely had a wine industry. Now now only are their wines found on shelves in Europe, North America and Asia.

Zealand's wine exports have grown at an average of 23.8% over the past two years, four times the rate of growth in any other export sector.

Marlborough, one of New Zealand's primier wine growing regions and home to the country's most famous Sauvignon Blanc's, now accounts for 20% of ecomonomy. Not bad for a industry which as I already mentioned did not really exist 20 years ago...

"For the industry the NZIER report represents a very positive analysis of the contribution grape growing and winemaking make to the New Zealand economy. That contribution totals over $3.5 billion of revenue through our own direct sales and the sales we generate in related sectors such as the tourism and hospitality industries," Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith says, according to a news report by the NZ National Business Review.

India, a relative new comer in the global wine scene is now looking to use growth of New Zealand's wine industry as a template for nurturing their own infant industry.

Wairau Valley, Marlborough - New Zealand

Here are a few excerpts from a interesting article covering this topic, courtesy of The Indian Wine Academy.

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In India, Sula took the lead in wine tourism with a tasting room and a reasonably world-class structure has been commissioned but nothing much has been done by Indage or Grover- though Indage opened a wine bar outside the winery with a modern tasting room inside and Grover has also opened a tasting room recently.

The infra-structure to travel to Nashik is practically non-existent. It takes over 5 hours to reach Nashik from the airport with a private taxi and once you reach there, finding the winery locations is a nightmare for most visitors.

The tourism ministry does not seem to pay much attention to this aspect either. Even Destination India 2009 project to promote tourism in India seems to have ignored this lucrative part of the tourism. Hopefully, the Nashik grape growers association or the newly formed National Grape Board would have a look at the potential honey pot when it gets down to business.

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