A nine day long extravaganza of Indian handcrafted products such as stoles, shawls, handbags, artificial jewellery, scarves, home decorative items, bedsheets, cushion covers, wall hangings, curtains and Christmas decorative started at the AFl-Artigiano in Fiera, Milan, Italy. The fair will continue till December 13.
Eleven member exporters of the Council from various parts of the country are participating in the fair along with five master craftspersons of silver filigree from Andhra Pradesh, Mithila painting from Bihar, camel leather jewellery from Jodhpur, bell metal from Chattisgarh and embroidery from Uttar Pradesh.
The Indian pavilion was inaugurated by Arun Kumar Sharma, Consul at CGI, Milan, Italy, Antonio Intiglietta, President of the fair was also present during inauguration said Rakesh Kumar, executive director — EPCH.
CGI during interacting with the participants and craftpersons appreciated the efforts being made by EPCH to promote Indian Handicrafts through participation in the fair.
Af-l’artigiano in Fiera, Milan, Italy is the biggest international retail trade event dedicated to arts and crafts.
The exhibition is open to general public and trade visitors both for spot booking and retail and sale. The fair is spread over in 1,50,000 sq. mtr area and widely participated by more than 3000 exhibitors from 110 countries from all over the world.
It is expected that with the participation in AFl-Artigiano Fiera, Milan, Italy, exports of Indian handicrafts to Italy will be further increased. Indian handicrafts has good demand in Italy which can be ascertained by the fact that exports to Italy was `229.85 crores in 2014-15 in comparison to last year with an increase of 27.15 per cent.
large number of buyers also visit IHGF-Delhi fair during each edition further elaborated Kumar.
EPCH is a nodal agency for promotion of handicrafts exports from the country and to create brand image of handcrafted products in international markets.