AIZAWL:
Despite crackdown on Mizoram-produced grape wines by the Mizoram government, Champhai Grape Growers Society (CGGS) and Hnahlan Grape Growers and Processing Cooperative Society (HGGPCS) continued to buy grapes harvested by farmers in Myanmar border Champhai and Hnahlan towns of Champhai district.
The CGGS and HGGPCS leaders said that they were buying ripe grapes with expectations that the state government would allow them to make and sell grape wines, despite the raids on May 27 when officials of the state excise and narcotics department seized grape wine bottles valued at more than Rs 22 lakh from three shops in the Millennium Centre, the largest shopping mall in Aizawl.
Though the state excise and narcotics minister K Beichhua tried to explain the activities of his department officials saying that some shopkeepers were selling whisky and other strong drinks in the guise of selling Mizoram-made grape wines, it was later clarified that no whisky or other drinks with high alcohol contents were seized at the shopping mall.
The two societies engaged in manufacture of grape wines said that they purchased grape harvest with the hope that the state government would not prohibit manufacture and sale of the wines as the ripened grapes have to be treated in the fermentation tanks immediately.
Some sources said that the state government had consulted all the opposition parties on the issue, and was most likely to allow manufacture and sale of grape wines after consents were received from the latter.
If making and selling of grape wine is not allowed, the farmers and the stake-holders of the two wineries would lose crores of rupees.
HGGPCS leaders said that they had purchased almost 830 quintals of grape from the farmers on payment at the spot at the rate of Rs 60 per kg. and were being kept in the fermentation tanks.
CGGS leaders said that grape harvest began late in the Champhai area, and they had collected around 60 quintals and would continue to collect it. CGGS collected the grapes from the farmers and would pay them after selling the wines at the rate of Rs 60.
“If we do not buy the grapes during the harvest, all the toils of the farmers would be in vain as grapes are highly perishable,” a HGGPS leader said.