BHOPAL: Snacks and sweet manufacturers in Madhya Pradesh’s commercial capital Indore have launched serious efforts to bag Geographical Indication (GI) tag for four popular food items, including the world-famous ‘Indori-Poha.’
The Indore Mithai Aur Namkeen-Vikreta Vyapari Sangh (IMANVVS) — an association of snacks and sweet manufacturers in Indore — has started documenting the origin of Malwa region’s four popular food items, including the Indori poha (made from flattened rice flakes), shikanji (milk-based sweet drink), laung sev (clove-flavoured snack) and khatta-meetha namkeen (sweet and sour dry snack) on the lines of Dharwad peda (Karnataka) and Bengal’s rosogulla.
The Export and Import (Exim) Bank had last year suggested that the state should get GI tags for MP’s special products after Kadaknath black chicken of Jhabua had bagged the tag. “We have succeeded in tracing Indori Poha back to 1949 and for the other three food items. We have facts to prove their historicity back to early 1930s,” IMANVVS secretary Anurag Bothra said.
“There is photographic record of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru among many, and Bollywood heartthrob Amitabh Bachchan relishing and swearing by MP’s snack quality,” he added.
Bothra said though Indori-Poha and Indori-Namkeen is synonymous with Indore, snack makers outside MP have benefitted more from the large market in the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East despite some 4000 small, medium and large units producing them in Indore.
With the share of Indore in such exports being just 2 to 5%, he said, the tag will help in their branding and marketing and help avoid duplication.
The Kamal Nath government had in its budget proposed roping in specialized agencies to brand and market MP’s special products with national and international appeal.
What is the geographical Indication tag?
A GI tag is used for an agricultural, natural or a manufactured product (handicraft and industrial goods) originating from a definite geographical territory. It conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness, which is essentially attributable to the place of its origin