The Hindu : Business : Cluster expo evokes good response

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 07, 2006

Business

Business

Cluster expo evokes good response

Staff Reporter

Food and garments units get business enquiries

KOCHI: The three-day Kerala Cluster Products Expo-2006, which concluded here on Saturday, evoked a good response from the public with regard to the concept and implementation of the idea of industrial clusters in the State.

The food and garments units found the exhibition an opportunity to expose their brands and gain some business enquiries.

Mathew Kulathooran, chairman, Pathanamthitta Agro Food Consortium Ltd., said the expo was the first of such fairs to be attended by the food cluster, which was about to launch its Pasco brand of food items in the market. There were 15 units under the cluster, said Mr. Kulathooran. He said that it was an opportunity to showcase the food production capabilities of the cluster members to the larger market.

Similarly, Kozhikode Halwa Consortium Private Ltd. found the expo useful in bringing awareness about the quality of halwa made by the cluster members. Mohammed Ashraf, managing director of the cluster, said the exhibition had seen considerable sales as well as business enquiries.

He said the halwa cluster members had participated in a fair in New Delhi early this year. The Kochi experience was a good experience too. It gave the participants an opportunity to interact with members of other clusters. There were 20 units in the halwa cluster.

However, some of the units that participated in the exhibition felt that the expo was not of much help in terms of the number of visitors to the stalls and business enquiries. They felt that the vacation might have been responsible for the relatively fewer visitors to the stalls.

Mohanan V. Ponad of Shoranur Agricultural Implements Consortium Private Ltd., felt that the expo might not have received sufficient visibility because of which not too many people visited the stalls. However, he said that it was an opportunity for the cluster members to interact with officials from the Industries Department.

For over two days, top Industries Department officials were present at the venue of the expo so that the cluster members could interact with them and apprise them of the progress of the cluster works and the problems confronting them, said Mr. Ponad.

Gracy Thomas, managing director of Mahila Apparels Private Ltd., Angamaly, said the expo had helped expose their Wing brand of products launched six months ago. There were 73 units in the cluster, which was one of the first to go on stream under the cluster development programme. Ms. Thomas felt that a little more publicity for the expo would have resulted in better sales and business enquiries.

A spokesman for the Kerala Bureau of Industrial Promotion (K-BIP) said the expo was put together to give the clusters and the various units an experience of participating in trade fairs. According to him, the expo had succeeded in realising the goals for which the show was organised.

He said the expo had sufficient publicity through the media and that certain sectors, such as general engineering, might have had less business enquiries, whereas food and textiles sector would have had more response from the public. As a follow-up to the expo, cluster members would be given opportunity for interactions with exporters in the near future, said the K-BIP official.

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