 The Silk Mark Organisation of India has organised a “Silk Mark Expo -2009” in Ahmedabad which will run from November 20 to 25. It was inaugurated by Mr AS Patel, Secretary, Cottage and Rural Industries (Govt of Gujarat) and Mr SK Chaturvedi, Managing Director, Gujarat State Handlooms and Handicrafts Development Corporation.
Revealing the activities and progress of the ‘Silk Mark’ in the country, Mr TD Koshy, Silk Mark Consultant, said that this expo was mainly organised to promote ‘Silk Mark’ in Gujarat and this was the seventh such expo in India, with nine more to follow in different cities.
Explaining the benefits of ‘Silk Mark’ he said, the ‘Silk Mark’ ensured that the customer got the right material at right price as well as the genuineness of the product was also assured. They have also set up silk testing counters at the expo if any of the customers wanted to verify the authenticity of the product he/she was buying.
Delving out statistics he said India is the second biggest producer of silk in the world after China. Production capacity of China was 100,000 tons while that of India was 20,000 tons and the sericulture industry provides employment to around 6.5 million people in the country.
He said that they were also considering new applications for making silk more popular among consumers in menswear other than womenswear and said that 6 out of 10 India consumers were taken for a ride due to fake silk products circulating in the market.
Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively to Mr Koshy and asked him about the contribution of the ‘Silk Mark’ to the growth of the industry, to which he replied by saying that the mark was a catalyst for the growth of sericulture industry in India.
Apart from which he continued by saying that, production had gone up from 16,000 tons, four years back to 19,000 tons in the previous fiscal year and as of date there were 1,100 authorised users of the ‘Silk Mark’ in India .
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