Bhubaneswar, Feb. 2: For Cuttack's Pushpalata Guin, who sells handloom products, it's time to murmur the proverb - too many cooks spoil the broth.

Like Guin, other participants at the handloom fair, too, feel that a number of other exhibitions and expos being held in the city around the same time have hampered business at the Khadi Bazaar.

Guin has salwar suits, kurta pieces, Sambalpuri cloths and other handloom products on offer at her Exhibition Ground kiosk.

But, she said: "This time, the sale is yet to pick up. I am coming to take part in an exhibition after a long time and had high hopes. But, apart from a few silk saris, I have not been able to sell much."

While the annual Adivasi Mela is under way at Unit-I, a special handloom expo is also going on at Pokhariput. This apart, a number of trade fairs and handloom expositions have been conducted in the city in the past two months.

Those who have put up kiosk at the fair are unhappy over the poor business. "This is not the right time to hold the fair. The footfall is not good, and the sale is below average," said Abul Azad, a trader from Bengal.

Traders said that on an average, they were selling around four saris a day instead of registering a daily sale of nearly 25 saris - a practice prevalent in the previous years.

Though the participants blame too many fairs at the same time for the low turnout, visitors have a different take.

Most of those visiting the fair feel that the items available are quite regular. What stands out is that many of them say that most of the fabrics on sale are not are hand woven but mill-processed yarn.

"I was looking for the original khadi fabrics that is obtained by spinning of the charkha. I could not find a good collection of typical khadi kurtas," said Lipirekha Debampriya, a visitor to the fair.

Sreeja Poonam, another visitor, too, expressed unhappiness with the collections on offer.

"With a number of fairs being held in the city recently, one has to have designs and styles that stand out. I could not find anything innovative here. Moreover, there are not many products from village industries," she said.

The bazaar houses 100 kiosks and 15 of these are participants from outside the state. This has also not gone down well with the customers, who allege that despite being a being a state-level fair, it shows more interest in drawing traders from outside the state.

The fair, which ends on February 8, is being organised by the Centre's micro, small and medium enterprises ministry's Khadi and Village Industries Commission.

The organisers, who could not provide the sales figures, had their own version to share.

"Initially, the footfall was little less, but it has picked up. We had also put up advertisements to promote the fair," said commission director Utkal Keshari.

A similar fair had been held in the city last year in collaboration with the state-run Odisha Khadi and Village Industries Board. Around 200 kiosks were set up at the fair that did a business of around Rs 4 crore.

But this year, with the central body deciding to go solo, the state government had expressed their disappointment. "The central funds and the state planning and resources worked well. But, they did not show any interest in involving us this time," said board president Tejeswar Parida.

"We will conduct a similar exhibition," said Parida.

So, wait for one more.