Guwahati, March 16: Assam Apex Weavers and Artisans Co-operative Federation Limited (Artfed) has decided to introduce handloom mark tags on its product lines to assure the buyers of the genuineness of the items.

With this, Artfed becomes of the first agency in the Northeast to introduce handloom mark on its hand-woven textiles.

“We will be able to create trust among the buyers and thus increase our annual business turnover of handwoven fabrics by marking our products with the tag,” said Artfed managing director N.N. Rana Patgiri.

Patgiri said the tag would be attached to all products in Artfed’s 59 showrooms within the next 10 days.

The mark is in two forms — one for domestic use where the word “handloom” is written beneath the logo and the other for international marketing on which “handwoven in India” will be written under it. Each label will be coded on its back for easy identification.

The Centre had in June last year launched a scheme called “handloom mark” with a view to give collective identity to handloom products.

Individual weavers, apex and primary handloom wea-ver’s co-operative societies, master weavers, handloom development corporations, retailers and exporters are will be included in the scheme.