Self-help groups did brisk business on the penultimate day of the Inter-state Cooperative Fair 2015 slated to conclude at the Parade Ground on Thursday. Many SHGs said that they had reached their targets a day before the fair would end with all the goods having been sold.
However, immediately after the fair started, the volume of sale for the SHGs selling Uttarakhand’s traditional pulses was not good. But later, things picked up and the sale was high. A SHG from Uttarkashi claimed to have made a profit of `45,000 in five days.
Those putting up stalls to sell the State’s traditional pulses said the stalls had drawn huge crowd after the initial lull in the sales. Sandhya Bhagirathi, a SHG based in Dehradun sold almost three quintals of ‘Gahat’ pulse in the five days.
Komal Devi, one of the members of the group, said a large number of the visitors had bought ‘tor’ and ‘mandua’ from them. “The trend is still continuing with two days left for the fair to end,” she said. ‘Rajma’ from Harshil and Chakrata are drawing customers too to the stalls that are selling them, said lokesh Nautiyal, Agri business officer from Uttarkashi.
Apart from the pulses, many people were seen asking for the red rice ‘lal chawal or Cherdhan’, he added.
Another group from Chamoli, however, managed an average sale of the pulses. Naveen Kandwal , Agri technical officer from Chamoli who sounded dissatisfied with the overall sale of pulses said while many SHGs here had done brisk business some had failed to hit the targets. He accounted the variation in the prices of the pulses for this varied volume of sale.
“The State Government should fixed prices so that both the growers and those who sell them are benefitted,” added.