Diwali sales: Products of khadi, village industries boom 300% in order value from year-ago season

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The sale of khadi and other small and village industries’ products has seen a jump of nearly 300 per cent this Diwali season from the year-ago period amid the government’s Vocal for Local campaign. The consolidated retail sales of products across 14 categories including glass articles, fabrics such as cotton, silk, woolen, etc., embroidery products and agro products viz., papadum (papad), asafoetida (heeng), honey at Khadi Gramodyog Bhawans based in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh from November 1 – November 14 stood at Rs 20.75 crore. This was 282 per cent up from sales worth Rs 5.44 crore during October 14-27 last year, according to MSME Ministry.

Products witnessing the highest sales growth in value terms were glass articles with 3,300 per cent followed by agro products including asafoetida, which grew 986 per cent, papad by 943 per cent, pickle 928 per cent, masala 849 per cent, etc. “The Ministry officials are hopeful that this increase in sales of local and traditional products will continue over the coming months, thereby strengthening the livelihoods and the earnings of a large number of people depending on them,” the ministry said in a statement. In terms of maximum sales, the KVIC stores registered Rs 7.24 crore worth of sales for cotton fabric while readymade products including khadi masks were sold worth Rs 4.58 crore. Other top-selling products were silk fabric (Rs 3.64 crore), village industry items (Rs 3.1 crore), woolen fabric (Rs 1.05 crore), etc.

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The MSME Ministry had launched an online campaign ahead of Diwali season to promote local products made by artisans and MSMEs. The campaign was run over a month with videos and messages of around a dozen local products and processes. The flagship KVIC store at Connaught Place, Delhi had a maximum per day sale in its history of Rs 1.27 crore on October 2, 2019 while on October 2, 2020, the sale stood at Rs 1.02 crore. Khadi and village industries (KVI) had reported Rs 88,887 crore in their FY20 turnover of which the Khadi industry’s turnover was Rs 4211.26 crore while the majority turnover of Rs 84,675.39 crore belonged to village industries. MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari has targeted Rs 5 lakh crore turnover in the coming five years for KVI.