In order to enhance the credibility of Silk Mark scheme launched by the Government of India to help consumers identify genuine pure natural silk products easily, the Silk Mark Organisation of India in collaboration with the Uttarakhand Directorate of Sericulture will organise Silk Mark Expo in Dehradun from October 16 to 21.
According to the SMOI assistant director Vivek Kumar, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna is slated to inaugurate the exhibition at a hotel on Rajpur Road, where 30 exhibitors from 12 States will be displaying their wares.
In India, more than 90 per cent of the domestic raw silk is used for production of silk sarees. The sarees and fabrics are produced by about 3,00,000 handlooms and 1,00,000 powerlooms. However, Kumar states that silk in India has been facing unfair competition from man-made substitutes like viscose, polyester yarn and nylon among others which are passed on to unsuspecting consumers as pure natural silk.
Unscrupulous manufacturers and traders not only sell the synthetic fabrics as silk but often also mix them with silk during manufacture to cut production cost. Such items are sold to consumers as pure silk. This has been a serious problem in the Indian silk industry leading to lack of trust while buying silk.
Such unfair practices have also been affecting Indian sericulture farmers, rearers, reelers, and other stake holders who do not get the real value for their product. Considering the seriousness of the issue, the Government of India launched the Silk Mark scheme being implemented through SMOI for the last nine years with over 2300 authorised users.
More than 1.75 crore labels have been distributed to these authorised users to promote the sale of only pure silk products.
To facilitate the generic promotion of pure silk, 18 Silk Mark Expos are slated to be held in 2013-14 with the exhibition in Dehradun being the ninth in the series.
Apart from the CM, Revenue and Cooperatives minister Yashpal Arya, Tourism Minister Amrita Rawat and CEO of SMOI Sukumar Menon are also expected to attend the inauguration of the expo.