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The Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce is delighted to announce that following an MOU to be signed by the Government of Maharashtra (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation), four major wine agencies of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and the Chamber, a major wine development project will be undertaken that will include a service centre to train winemakers in all the aspects of viticulture and marketing – a first in India.
Italy for long has been the leading wine producing country in the world, producing what many experts agree are some of the world’s finest wines. With the longest tradition of viticulture, Italy is best suited to introduce its expertise to the nascent, but fast growing, wine industry of India. The state of Maharashtra is the leading wine producing region in India, accounting for 95 per cent of the country’s wine production. Nearly 9.5 m litres of wine are produced in Maharashtra by 43 wineries, and the state has recently announced a surge of 33 per cent in wine exports for 2005-06. This is thanks to the very active policy of encouraging wine production in the state, which has seen Nashik, Sangli, Pune, Solapur, Ahmednagar and Satara being designated Agri Export Zones (AEZ) for Grapes and Grape Wine Parks.
Recognising the great potential of the winemaking industry in India, the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce embarked on WINEBAR, a technical assistance project within the Asia Invest Programme of the European Community. WINEBAR is a joint enterprise between certain provinces of the Emilia Romagna region in Italy and the wine growing districts of Maharashtra. Under this project, the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Centuria-RIT and Research Centre on Vegetal production (CRPV) from Italy, and the Maharashtra Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (MCED) have worked together to promote lasting technological and business partnership between European and Indian SMEs.
As part of WINEBAR, the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce organised a high level delegation of Indian government officials and wine producers to Italy from 5–8 April, which included a visit to Vinitaly, the leading wine expo of Italy, in Verona. The delegation included Mr K V Jairath, Secretary for Industries, Government of Maharashtra, the CEO of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and an official of the Maharashtra Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (MCED), Nashik. During his visit, Mr Jairath gave presentations on the Indian economy, with special focus on Maharashtra and grape production in the state, and also addressed press conferences. The most significant outcome of this is now the signing of an MOU in Mumbai, as part of the concluding activity of WINEBAR.
The MOU will be signed on Friday, 16 June 2006 by the Government of Maharashtra through the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Centuria, Catev & CRPV (Faenza), Enoteca Regionale of Emilia Romagna (Dozza) to provide training, technical know-how and expertise for the wine industry of Maharashtra.
The Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be the co-coordinator between the Italian and Indian parties.
The MOU will outline that, following the successful completion of a feasibility study, MIDC will provide infrastructure support and the Italian parties will provide technical expertise in all aspects of wine production and marketing. This is a momentous achievement for Italy – and the Chamber – in beating all other leading wine producing nations of the world by providing what will effectively be the first such world class wine facility in India.
For further enquiries regarding WINEBAR and the MOU, please contact at the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce:
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