One of the important activities of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) has been the organisation of Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair (IHGF) twice a year in Delhi/NCR.
This fair was initiated in the year 1994 and has become so popular in the world market that it attracts large number of overseas buyers in each edition who source their requirements from Indian companies participating at this fair.
In the series, 36th edition of Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair (Autumn) 2013 is scheduled to be held from October 15 to 18 at India Expo Centre and Mart, Greater Noida.
The council has been organising the Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair with the intention of providing a platform to the exporting community and to the importing community of the world to conduct business based on mutual interest.
KS Rao, union minister of textiles will be inaugurating the fair on October 15. Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka lakshmi, Zohra Chatterji, secretary (textiles), SS Gupta, development commissioner (handicrafts), Navraj Goyal, additional development commissioner (handicrafts) will also grace the occasion.
The Handicrafts Fair this year will have more than 2600 exhibitors including 900 permanent marts, drawn from various regions and states of India displaying a very wide variety of handicrafts at this show. The major product categories will be giftware, kitchenware, decorative, furnishing, furniture, tableware, gardenware, houseware and fashion accessories. Eco-friendly products made out of different raw material bases like wood, cane and bamboo, textiles of natural fibres, wool, silk, jute, coir, leather, terracotta, lacquer will be on focus.
Rakesh Kumar, executive director of EPCH, informed that the uniqueness of the products showcased at this fair will continue to be the domination of hand crafted and hand made products where machines are used only for finishing purposes. Though hand crafted products are displayed at many other fairs in the world but it is also a known fact that hand crafted products produced in countries like China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia etc are predominantly machine made and hand work is done only for finishing. This is the reason that these countries cater to bulk orders in thousands and millions.
Unlike this, India still have predominance of hand crafted and hand made products and this is the reason that India offers uniqueness in craftsmanship, finish and presentation which brings further value addition to the finished products.
lekhraj Maheshwari, Chairman — EPCH added that the product range on display at the fair will be suitable for meeting requirement of all types of buyers ranging from low, middle and top end consumers. It is expected that large number of buyers from all across the globe shall be visiting the fair for sourcing their requirements of handicrafts.
Two seminars will be organised during the fair entitled “Vriksh Timber legality Assessment and Verification System” on October 16 and “Opportunities for Foreign Investment in Handicrafts Sector” on October 17 at board room of fair venue.
Handicrafts exports registered an increase of 21.43 per cent in rupee terms and 11.27 per cent in dollar terms during the first six months of the year 2013-14 over the previous corresponding period. The exports during first six months of the current fiscal is `9,266.38 crore, further, export target of `21,000 crore during 2013-14 will be surpassed, elaborated by Chairman — EPCH.
The EPCH is a nodal agency for promotion of exports of handicrafts products from India and projects India’s image abroad as a reliable supplier of high quality handicrafts products.