The Manipur’s scented black rice, locally known as Chakhao or Chahao will be available in the important global and national markets. A formal export launching session of the product under the brand name Chahao was held in Imphal on Friday afternoon.
High Vision Consultants, a Haryana based trader and promoter, is playing a key role in global promotion and marketing of the organic product under their initiative ‘Healthy Food and Healthy Life’.
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Project coordinator Mohendro Singh Khaidem of the Manipur Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium Imphal who is popularly known as MS Khaidem attended the day’s event as special guest.
Khaidem said that the primary objective of the Consortium is to bridge the gap between the producers and buyers in the region.
“We’re lucky that we have got a good food buyers company after the farmers in our state face a series of problems for not getting the buyers for their organic products in the last two years,” he said.
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Speaking to reporters on the sideline of the launching function, Founder and chief executive officer Sanjay Kumar Swami of High vision consultants said that he detected the quality of chahao during his recent visit to Manipur in the past few months.
“We’re trying our best to promote and introduce such an important rice variety considering it’s nutrient values and antioxidant properties to the world as few people know about the special character of this scented rice variety in the world,” said Sanjay Kumar. “We want to serve healthy food to the nation as well,” he said.
Informing that his company will be studying every aspects of the rice variety with the concerned farmers for the upcoming initiatives, he assured that the company will try to procure chahao from Manipur as many as possible.
The company is targeting to procure around 1000 metric tonnes during 2018-19.
Reacting to a question on why this 4 years old company is not targeting in other NE states where there are reports of producing chahao, he said that the quality of chahao available in Manipur is not comparable to other in terms of its nutrient values etc.
The state authority under the horticulture department had cultivated chahao across 2000 hectares in four valley districts under the scheme of organic Mission Organic Value Chain Development.
According to Subhas Naoroibam, a farmer from Sekta village in Imphal East district, chahao cultivation helps in increasing their annual income compared to normal rice cultivation practices as it has more market value.