EPCH ORGANIZED A SEMINAR ON EXPLORING NEW MARKETS AND IDENTIFYING NEW PRODUCTS AT RAJIV GANDHI HANDICRAFT BHAWAN

Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) organized a seminar on Exploring New Markets and Identifying New Products for promotion of exports from the country at Rajiv Gandhi Handicrafts Bhawan here on (Saturday) December 28, 2013.

The session was addressed by Dr. Tamanna Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. The speaker interacted with participants wherein over 55 exporters were present.

The objective of conducting this seminar was to make the member exporters aware on how new markets can be identified by customizing their existing products. The importance of product innovation in order to withstand the fierce competition from major exporting countries like China.

During the seminar, Dr. Chaturvedi emphasized that before entering a market, the market should be analyzed on two parameters i.e. Import Demand and its Competitiveness. She informed that the Market’s competitiveness can be judged on parameters like demand of the product in its domestic market and position of Indian players to satisfy their demand. She also stressed upon availing the benefits provided by the Government to the handicraft exporters through various schemes like Focus Product Scheme (FPS), Focus market Scheme (FMS), Market Development Assistance Scheme (MDA) and Market Access Initiative (MAI).

She made the exporters understand the importance of a HS Code and how the benefit varies from one HS code to the other. Using tools like Trademap.org explained that how the current export market can be understood i.e. major exporting countries, price of goods, growth in export over the years and tariff imposed on import using macmap.org.

Mr. Rakesh Kumar, Executive Director-EPCH informed that the seminar was concluded with  remarks about which right market should be picked keeping in view its taste and preferences, packaging and logistics, duty concessions through various agreements signed between India and other countries.

The Executive Director-EPCH  further informed that the Council will organize seminars on other subjects also for the promotion of handicrafts exports from the country.