Kerala govt’s ambitious ‘horti-wine’ project finds no takers

Thiruvananthapuram: The much-touted ‘horti-wine’ project of the Kerala Government has turned out to be a non-starter even eight months after its launch. Even though several prospective entrepreneurs had approached the state Excise Department expressing interest in setting up wineries, none of them submitted an application for the purpose.

All of them had backed off reportedly over concerns regarding the marketing of the product. The fate of ‘Neera’ units which were forced to close down following a lack of market intervention by the government also influenced their decision.

The government also is yet to constitute district-level panels with heads of various departments as members to check and clear the applications for wineries.

Wineries, where the beverage is produced from fruits and other farm produce, were mooted under the first liquor policy of the state government to encourage farmers and small-scale entrepreneurs. Subsequently, in October last year, the Kerala Wineries Rules came into force. The rules included stipulations on the design and facilities of the wine-making units.

Meanwhile, the rules also stated that the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) would have a monopoly over the sale of wine produced by the local units. However, the government has not so far given instructions to Bevco on selling this wine.

Ironically, Bevco already sells wine made by leading liquor brands at its outlets, but the demand is so poor that the beverage constitutes less than one per cent of the total liquor sales by the corporation. In view of this situation, prospective small-scale entrepreneurs in Kerala are not confident that Bevco would promote their products.

Moreover, the government has not suggested an alternative marketing network for local wine. Similarly, as horti-wine contains up to 15.5 per cent alcohol, rules have to be amended to allow sales outside Bevco. The rules also fail to clearly mention the government agency which would oversee the project.

Uncertainty loomed over the marketing when the government implemented the Neera project also. Later, when the government did not promote the beverage, most of the Neera-making units downed shutters.

Yet another related initiative that is still in cold storage is a project to produce liquor having low alcohol content from cashew.

Incidentally, Bevco too had approached the government with a Rs 5-crore plan to set up a winery on land belonging to Malabar Distillery. The proposal had said that the Kerala Police Housing Construction Corporation would build the infrastructure. However, the Finance Department raised objections, pointing out that the police housing corporation had no expertise in constructing a winery. With no other builder found, permission was denied.