Aug 5, 2011

India’s Participation Showcasing Indian Gifts and Crafts

The New York International Gift Fair will be held at New York City from 14 – 18 August, 2011. The Venue of the show is Jacobs K. Javits Convention Centre which is known world over as one of the largest, finest and technologically the most advanced exhibition and conference venues.

India has been participating in this show for the past three years. Indian participation is organized by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH). EPCH is an apex organization in India engaged in the promotion of business and trade for hand crafted products. The category of hand crafted product is very wide and large and it includes product like gifts, decoratives, houseware items, garments and accessories, fashion ware and accessories, costume jewellery and accessories, floor coverings, home and household requirement, cutlery, crockery, utensils etc. in addition to curios and antiques items. India has been supplying these products range to US for the past many years. In fact USA is one of the largest markets for Indian handcrafted products. USA holds 31.34% (US$ 926.26 million) share of India’s total handicraft exports. Leading departmental stores and buyers like WALMART, TARGET, MACYS, BLOOMING DALES, K-MART, PIERS and many others source from India.

The Indian participation in the New York Gift fair to be held in August 2011 will have 30 Indian companies exhibiting their diverse range under the banner of India Pavilion. The main product lines of display will be textiles, garments, fashion accessories, costume jewellery and accessories, home textiles, embroidered textiles, antiques and curios, floor coverings, brocade items, marble products, incense, lamps and lighting accessories, stoles and scarves and lace products.

One of the highlights of India participation in NYIGF this year will be live demonstration by five Master craft persons. The demonstration by master craftspersons will show inlay work, hand block printing, glass studded painting, tie and dye printing and making of pressed dry flowers. These five master craftpersons are national award winners in India and belong to different states of India representing different techniques and workmanship. The objective of live demonstration by these craftpersons is to evince interest of the visiting buyers in the intricate and delicate work involved in producing hand crafted gifts items which are supplied by India not only to the American continents but to the entire world.

Another highlight of the Indian Participation in this show is a networking meet being organized by EPCH. In this networking meet, American buyers have been invited to interact with their Indian counterparts. The objective is to highlight the fact that doing business with India is much more profitable then doing business with other countries. EPCH which is the main promotional body, will make a presentation on India’s capabilities and diverse range of products and the diverse range of raw material base India has to offer in addition to intricate and exquisite workmanship of the Indian artisans and craftpersons in preparing highly sophisticated items for requirement of American consumers. India make many kinds of lifestyles products and daily use items which not only make a fashion statement but also add to the status value and meet the day-to-day needs. Variety of Indian products is so versatile both in terms of quality and price that it can easily satisfy high end, middle end and low end buyers. The range is so large that it can add to the departmental store a huge variety which will attract many buyers and may compel them to buy the Indian products. The Indian prices are very competitive. Quality is very good and designs and workmanship is extraordinary. These are the factors which lead to higher rate of profitability.

The networking meet will provide a platform to the American buyers who are already doing business with India to share their experiences with other fellow Americans. In order to make the meet interesting, there will be live demonstration by craftspersons besides a cultural performance by Indian artists. EPCH is of the view that such a meet will generate interest among American buyers in Indian products and will lead to bigger volume of business in the time to come.