India 9th Biggest Grape Producer in World

With an industry less than 20 year old, India has not yet made a mark in the wine industry in the world but it is already the ninth biggest producer of grapes including the eating grapes with an estimated crop of 18.8 million quintals of grapes in 2010, according to Federico Castellucci, Director General of OIV, while releasing the World Statistics on grapes and wine at the 34th World Congress of Vine and Wine, reports Subhash Arora from Porto. Out of the 16 top producers led by Italy at 75 million quintals, only six nations – China, Turkey, Chile, India, Egypt and Brazil have demonstrated an increase while the rest have shown a decrease.

According to the statistics collected mostly from the member states, world wine production in 2010 fell to 1998 levels with only Argentina, China, South Africa and Chile seeing the production increase during 2005-10. The consumption showed a slight increase at .4% to 238 Million hL, thanks to the US, Germany, Australia, Canada and China which increased their consumption substantially with China becoming the 5th largest consumer.