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India to Witness Three-Fold Increase in Wine Consumption |
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Thursday, 13 March 2008 |
NEW DELHI: Wine consumption in India is set to triple by 2011 to touch 17 million liters per annum, according to a study conducted by UK-based International Wines and Spirits Records (IWSR).
As per the study, wine consumption in India stood at six million liters in 2006 and in the last four years, it has risen by over four times.
"Contrary to popular belief that only imported wines are mainly consumed, most wines consumed in the country are locally produced, accounting for 75 per cent of the total volume," wine exhibitor VinExpo Chairman Dominique Heriard Dubreuil said.
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 liters as compared to six million liters 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 organizing a wine exhibition in Hong Kong 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.
(C) 2008 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd.
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