Handicrafts & Gifts Fair to open on Oct 15: EPCH

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SME Times News Bureau | 08 Oct, 2013
36th Edition of four-day Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (IHGF) to open on 15th october at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida, the nodal agency for promotion of exports of handicrafts products informed Tuesday.

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," said the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) in a press release.

One of the important activities of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) has been the organization of Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (IHGF) twice a year in NCR of Delhi.

In the series, 36th edition of Indian Handicrafts & Gifts Fair (Autumn) 2013 is scheduled to be held from 15 - 18 October, 2013 at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida- a state-of-the art infrastructure built up exclusively for promoting Handicrafts trade.

Dr. K.S. Rao, Union Minister of Textiles will be inaugurating the fair on 15th October, 2013. Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi, Zohra Chatterji, Secretary (Textiles), S.S. Gupta, Development Commissioner ( Handicrafts), Navraj Goyal, Addl. 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 giftsware, 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.

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.

Handicrafts exports registered an increase of 21.43percent in Rupee terms and 11.27percent 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

Rs. 9,266.38 crore, further, export target of Rs. 21,000 crore during 2013-14 will be surpassed, elaborated by Chairman - EPCH.

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.