Meghalaya can justifiably boast of an extra ordinary diversity of fruits. The state has a very unique set of indigenous fruits, some of which are still in the wild. Since the potential value of these fruits is yet to be unlocked, the world of commerce is largely ignorant of them. While the good news is that some of these fruits are highly amenable for making very nutritious and tasty wines, the bad news is that there is no enabling institutional structure to promote wine entrepreneurship in our state. Peaches, Plums, Pears, Sohmon, Sohiong, Strawberries, etc. are all abundant, and tragically for the farmers, an estimated 40% of all our fruits and vegetables perish before they can reach the market. If we can create an entrepreneurial ecosystem around Wine, the farmers will be happy, the young entrepreneurs will be happy, the wine aficionados will be happy and of course, the tourists will return happy with a bottle or two of locally made wine. The Government too gains because of the increased tax revenue and the wealth thus generated circulates within the local economy.
Definitionally, fruit wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of an organic material that is NOT grape. Why do we use the expression organic material here? Because these wines do not have to be made out of fruits alone. For e.g., the ginger wine is made out of root and the Japanese Saki, of Rice. We are aware that the traditional societies of the north-east have made beverages out of the available cereals, millets and even potatoes. The conventionally held myth that grapes are the best fruits to make wine, arguably because of the near perfect balance of acids and sugar in them needs to be busted. Why? (1) Because there are 2000 different edible fruits on the planet, of which the western world knows or uses only about 10% of them. So, till the suitability of all the remaining fruits is fully researched how can anyone elevate Grape to such an exalted status? (2) Grape is native to Europe and the Mediterranean region so it makes enormous commercial sense for the Europeans to research and promote Grape which they did successfully over the last 1000 years. Indian Wine industry slavishly obsesses with grape so much, that today 98% of all wines made in India are grape-based. Our Nashik wine-makers still import some machinery and additives from Europe. Not just that, they also import different grape plants/varieties from Europe. Europe’s grip on the global wine industry is impregnable. The level of sophistication achieved by the European wine industry is such that no Indian corporate can ever break into it, Nashik notwithstanding. Nashik has more than three dozen wine corporates but none of them gets any serious cash through exports. Either our grape wines are not of export quality or the cartels of the global wine trade are too strong to let us make a dent. Barring one or two recent examples of Jamun and Pomegranate wines Nashik has not yet ventured into the Fruit wines. There is hardly any pan-Indian fruit wine brand. The time to challenge this narrative is now and it has to begin from Meghalaya.
A bit of a recap here. Meghalaya is one of the few states of the country that has legalized the manufacture and sale of home-made wines. Prior to September 2020, the wines made by the enthusiasts if any, were only for home consumption and could not be distributed or sold in the open market. In fact, it was illegal to make or sell any wine without obtaining a licence. And, licences could not have been given to anyone for want of an enabling legal framework. The policy, approved by the Government of Meghalaya in September 2020 finally closed the long-pending demand for legalising local wine-making. The ‘Manufacture and Sale of Home-made Fruit Wines Rules, 2020 authorize the excise department to issue licences to the local fruit wine makers of the state. A step forward, but it is still just a beginning. And there is a lot more ground to cover.
The impact of the policy is still very small. To begin with (1) there was not enough extension or awareness about the law – so, our potential entrepreneurs still have no idea as to how to obtain licences to make or distribute or sell fruit wines (2) the complex and sophisticated art of making commercial quality fruit wines is still to be figured out by our amateur local wine makers (3) there is a definite lack of clarity even at the national level with regard to the food safety standards for the fruit wines and (4) the logistical difficulties in procuring high quality ancillary supplies like bottles, caps, corks, labels, etc. are one too many. In other words, while the de-regulation was absolutely necessary it was still insufficient to make any big impact. The fruit wine sector needed much deeper governmental support – of a kind that is beyond the scope or competence of the Excise department, which at the best of times is a regulatory department and not really meant to promote. The issue therefore, had fallen in between the departmental cracks and no department owned the idea of promoting Fruit Wine industry in the state.
The Farmers’ Commission had to step in, because our singular focus is the farmer, the end beneficiary who is struggling to market his produce. We seek to enhance the local demand for horticultural commodities. So, we took upon the responsibility of organizing a week-long exposure visit to 28 current/potential wine entrepreneurs of Meghalaya to Nashik and gave them the necessary network of service providers, and a deep exposure to the intricacies of the wine industry of the country. The Nashik returnees are now fully charged and aware of the sector’s importance for the country and how best we can occupy the fruit-wine space that no one has ventured into so far. We also followed it up with wine tasting sessions during the Buckwheat global initiative at Shillong. Our target was to combine both Wine and Buckwheat, to help both – the farmer who produces the Buckwheat and the entrepreneur who makes fruit wine. It appears to have worked. With all these experiences, I now come up with an argument that goes beyond what the Commission has done so far.
I argue that Meghalaya has to deepen its involvement in the fruit wine sector. The state urgently needs the institutional infrastructure that will facilitate the growth of the wine industry in Meghalaya. To make that happen, I propose that the government establishes a Meghalaya Wine Board. Karnataka, having done something similar, is emerging as the next grape wine destination after Nashik. It is time we demystified wine making and it is also high time we brought the fruit wines into the hearts of the wine enthusiasts of our country. Let us prove to the world that the best wines are not necessarily made of grapes. Just as Nashik is the capital of grape-wines in the country, Shillong should emerge as the capital of fruit wines. What do we need? A steely resolve, an unwavering commitment and of course, unstinting support of the government.
