Around 100 tribal handloom and handicraft producers were empanelled by the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India (Trifed) at the Tribal Artisan Mela. It is a platform for marketing their products which was held at Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), premises in Guwahati on Friday.
Garments, furnishing items, household products, bags, ethnic handmade jewellery and food products were showcased.
Trifed selected and fixed prices of the products from different producers, weavers and artisans.
Trifed is an organization under the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs which markets handicraft and handloom products of tribals. They have 14 regional centres and 87 showrooms across the country.
Trifed vice-chairman Pratibha Brahma, regional manager MR Singh, IIE director Abhijit Sharma and other officials were present at the inauguration of the fair.
100 handicraft and handloom item producers, mostly women, from Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Assam participated in the fair.
Brahma said, “Our government is stressing on women empowerment and this fair is an excellent example as most of the participants here are highly skilled women. The indigenous women from the region are expert in making handmade products. The only problem of management and marketing will be solved with Trifed stepping in. We have to diversify our products as per the consumer demand. There is a huge demand of handloom products and natural fibres like eri and muga in the global market.”
Singh emphasized on maintaining quality and reasonable prices of the products. He asked the producers to meet deadlines while supplying orders.