Heimtextil Is Joined by Kerala Handlooms Division

The Directorate of Handlooms and Textiles, Government of Kerala, a state in southern India, has announced that it will participate in Heimtextil, an international trade fair for home textiles scheduled to be held at Frankfurt, Germany in second week of January.
 
As reported in Times of India, Kerala State Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society Ltd (Hantex) and Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation (Hanveev) would participate in the fair, along with five cooperative societies from Kannur district, Sam C Ittycheria, Director of Handlooms and Textiles with the state government, said.
 
He said it is for the first time that the handlooms division will take part in an international level exposition, which is expected to provide a great opportunity for the industry to build a sales network.
 
He said the participation in the expo is part of the state government’s effort to intensify marketing of locally-made handloom products.
 
He said this time as they participated in Vastra 2012, an international textile expo jointly organized by Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Ltd and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in November at Jaipur, an Egyptian buyer articulated interest in buying 3,000 Kerala Kasavu sarees from Hanveev.
 
He further added that Directorate of Handlooms recently organized a buyer-seller meet in Kochi, where handloom products were offered at 20 percent discount. He said that during previous buyer-seller meet at Kochi, they attracted two local buyers, who placed orders with Naveena and Ooruttambalam, two clusters in Thiruvananthapuram district.
 
About plans for forthcoming year, Mr. Ittycheria said that they have planned four buyer-seller meets in key cities and 28 other expositions in smaller towns in 2013.
 
Kerala has around 430 cooperative societies, about 200 of which have chosen to be a part of an organized cluster system, which represents a group of 7-12 cooperative societies.