Models wear muga dresses at a fashion show

Silchar, Jan. 22: Buoyed by the record overseas sales of traditional handlooms last year, Assam is planning to widen its range of products and take these to more countries across the globe.

Minister for handlooms, textiles and sericulture Hemo Prova Saikia said her department had been receiving trade enquiries for handloom products mainly from the US, the UK, South Africa, Japan, Italy and Germany.

Saikia said improvised traditional items from Assam, especially quilts, went off the shelves quickly at a trade fair in Milan. She said muga kimonos created waves at another expo in Japan.

?Our products were lapped up by the Japanese and our embassy in Tokyo had to arrange for more consignments from Assam.?

The minister said bedcovers and cushion covers made of traditional fabrics were in demand, too. Saikia spent three days in Cachar district, which is hosting the 20-day National Handloom Expo. The event got under way here on Thursday. Handloom development centres from across the country have put up as many as 42 stalls at the expo.

Rana Patgiri, who is the managing director of the Assam Apex Weavers and Artists? Co-operative Federation Ltd (Artfed), said in Guwahati that improvisation had increased the saleability of traditional handlooms. ?We are constantly trying to adapt to the demands of markets worldwide.?

Patgiri said Malaysian clients had placed orders for curtains made of silk-jute and polysilk jute.

Artfed is affiliated to the Handloom Export Promotion Council, the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts and the All India Federation of Co-operative Spinning Mills.