VIJAYAWADA: The Saras All India DWCRA Exhibition, which began on October 11, came to an end on Monday. The exhibition was held at Swaraj Maidan, Vijayawada. The 12-day expo received a good footfall since the expo coincided with the Dasara rush. People who came to the city from across the State made it a point to visit the exhibition too.
Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) Andhra Pradesh, which organised the exhibition, tried to create a ready-made market for skilled women members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) of 27 States.
This year saw as many as about 300 stalls of which almost 100 stalls were from Andhra Pradesh alone. A majority of the stalls showcased handlooms, apparel, organic foods and the like.Stalls selling apparel, accessories, home decor, have done exceptionally well so much so that some stalls left the exhibition much earlier having completed their stocks.
However, food courts housed in the exhibition suffered losses as the crowd was much lower than the previous year, one of the organisers said. The stall selling Araku bamboo chicken has suffered a loss of around `20,000 — their three bags of bamboo stems are still remain unutilised.
Speaking to TNIE, the stall owner of Araku Bamboo chicken said, “This year, the sale was not good like the previous year. Now we have to carry the unutilised bamboo stems to Visakhapatnam. The money we paid — `20,000 — is a loss for us. The sales were up to the mark.”
That apart, SHG workers selling Maharashtrian thali, Kerala food claim less sales. “They (the sales) were not good as expected,” Maharastrian stall owner said.
Similarly, P Sanitha of Kerala food stall, said, “For the first few days, the sale is quite low. Not many people came to taste our food. But later on, the sale improved but even then, it’s not as much as we expected.”
Except for those stalls that produced letters of permission from their respective State government , all the other stalls have been charged `20,000 as rent and accommodation for the workers during the exhibition. Few stalls, numbering around 20, have come on payment basis, said SERP officials.
Meanwhile, NSR Murthy, Junior Project executive, SERP claimed that the footfall for the expo was good this year and all the stalls were doing pretty good business. “Only few stalls, which came from other States may have not done well, but the overall the exhibition has done good business.”