Just before the ‘pujas’, there is good news for the people of West Bengal. In an effort to promote indigenous and Geographical Identification (GI) tagged products, the first consignment of GI-tagged sweet dish ‘Mihidana’ sourced from Bardhaman, has been exported to the Kingdom of Bahrain.

This unique sweet dish exported by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is being displayed (also provided for tasting purposes) to consumers at Aljazira superstores in Bahrain. More consignments of the unique sweet dish would be exported to Bahrain during the forthcoming Diwali festival.

The APEDA in a tweet wrote — In a boost to harness export potential of indigenous & #GI tagged products, a consignment consisting of unique sweet dishes from #WestBengal – #Sitabhog, #Langcha, #Chandrapuli & #Narkel Naru (#coconut #laddu with #jaggery) was exported the Kingdom of #Bahrain.

A GI tag is a sign denoting a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. GI, a form of intellectual property right (IPR), is distinct from other forms of IPR, as it ascribes the exclusivity to the community in a defined geography, rather than to an individual, as is in the case of trademarks and patents.

A GI tag can be issued for agricultural, natural or manufactured goods that have a unique quality, reputation or other characteristics attributable to its geographical origin. Darjeeling tea, Basmati rice, Kanchipuram Silk, Mysore Silk, Hyderabadi haleem, Nagaland chilli products, etc., sold with the GI tag have premium pricing.

For the last few years, APEDA has been focusing on increasing lesser-known, indigenous, and GI-tagged food products from the country. In August 2021, India Post released a special cover on West Bengal’s sweetmeats ‘Mihidana’ and ‘Sitabhog’. West Bengal’s Bardhaman got the GI tag for the century-old sweetmeats in 2017.

APEDA has been carrying out promotional activities to bring unique and GI certified products to the agricultural and processed food products export map of India. APEDA undertakes market promotion activities for export of food products, market intelligence for making informed decisions, international exposure, skill development, capacity building and high-quality packaging. It also provides assistance to set up pack houses across States which would fulfil the mandatory requirement or infrastructure for export of fresh fruits and vegetables to the international market.