Statesman News Service MALDA, June 28: The state’s smallscale and cottage industries minister, Mr Manab Mukherjee, has decided to develop the handloom industry of Malda by boosting production of high-quality coarse silk yarn.
At a recent meeting with officials of the sericulture department, the minister announced his decision to take up the challenge of producing export quality textile, using coarse silk yarn in Malda.
The minister had said that if Bhagalpur in Bihar could produce export quality fabric by using coarse silk yarn, the Malda silk industry, too, should also give it a try.
Mr Mukherjee was reportedly taken aback when informed that the Bhagalpur traders manufactured high-quality textile by using coarse silk yarn (dupion silk) procured from Malda.
It was learnt that many traders in Malda produced coarse silk to cater to the high demand in the markets of Bhagalpur and Nepal.
A good percentage of silk yarn producers here had shifted from production of fine silk to coarse silk to make more profit.There are a number of weavers from Malda who have joined the handloom sector in Nepal and Bhagalpur.
To boost the local sericulture industry, the deputy director of sericulture in Malda, Mr Bijan Mandal, and his colleagues will soon visit Bhagalpur and thereafter submit a market survey report to the government.
Mr Mandal said: “We can implement the new project through private entrepreneurs who produce other varieties of silk in Kaliachak.”
Mr Mandal said that local traders are interested in producing coarse silk owing to its low production cost.
Citing an example, Mr Mandal said that local producers invest Rs 1,000 for producing four kilogram of fine silk yarn, but to produce six kilogram of coarse silk yarn, they invest only Rs 250.
In Malda, 1,124 MT of silk yarn (including the fine and coarse varieties, motka, among other types) is produced. The target is to produce up to 1,500 MTs of silk yarn in the next three years. #
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