Jharcraft, one of Jharkhand?s major success stories, which forced the Centre to revise its tussar silk production target from 425 metric tonne (mt) to 1,000 mt by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan, is aiming to tie up with Wal-Mart and other entities in India and abroad to boost sales.
The agency is in talks with Wal-Mart for sale of its products in the US and is also in advanced talks for an export pact with London-based Alankrita Associates and with a Canada-based company.
Jharcraft, which already has a tie-up with Jaipur-based Moorarka Organic Pvt Ltd, for exports, is on the verge of tying up with Delhi-based Needlepoint, which has been exporting silk items to the US for the last 35 years.
?They (Alankrita) have completed their survey, we have sent our samples; we are also in discussion with a Canada-based firm which had recently inspected our items; we have sent them our price list,? said Dhirender Kumar, special secretary & director, handicraft, silk & handloom, Jharkhand government here on Wednesday.
Of all production units of tussar silk in the world, Jharcraft is the only agency which has gone for an international organic certification (done by the global agency OneCert) for its silk cocoons, yarn as well as its silk fabric.
?The certification is working greatly to our advantage when it comes to marketing our tussar products in the international market,? Kumar said.
Jharcraft, which produced 300 mt of tussar silk last year (2008-09), is targeting an output of 500 metric tonnes during the current year.
?It may be a bit difficult to achieve the 500 metric tonnes output this year as due to excessive summer heat a lot cocoons were lost; but it may finally affect us marginally only,? said Kumar. The Central Silk Board too has set an output target of 500 mt of tussar silk this year.
While mulberry silk production in the country is mainly concentrated in the southern states, tussar silk, starting with Jharkhand, is limited to Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, UP, Uttaranchal, Maharashtra, etc, while ?munga? silk and ?eri? silk is produced mainly in the North-Eastern states.
While Jharcraft has been doing good business in tussar silk, which started with an output worth Rs 50 lakh, achieved a turnover of Rs 5 crore in 2008-09. It has opened up employment opportunity to farmers, around 28,000 of whom were engaged last year in silkworm rearing.
The agency is confident of supporting around 50,000 farmers in the current year, with each farmer being able to earn between Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 in 40-45 days? rearing season.
Another set of beneficiaries of tussar in the state have been women engaged in its reeling and spinning centres.
Jharcraft, which has 50 reeling and spinning centres operational in several districts of the state, with the bulk of them located in Seraikela (20), East Singhbhum (5) and West Singhbhum (6) districts, is already in the process of increasing the number of such centres to 100 this year.
Jharcraft, which buys the tussar silk thread from these centres at market price, passes it on to the 15,000 weavers that it has been supporting till last year
The agency is planning to hike its support to around 40,000 weavers in the next couple of years by way of developing, under a central scheme, around 21 clusters of weavers with 11,000 looms in operation.