From the 7th to the 9th November 2019, the project hosted a stand at the Biofach India, Organic Trade Fair held in Delhi NCR. BCCI and CSM worked together to organise the stand and the participants supported by the project to attend the event.

In addition to attendees from CSM’s Fairtrade India project representing the Indian SMEs, BCCI organised a delegation from Bhutan composed of members from both government and private sector. Based on their engagement since the start of the project activities, officials from the Department of Agricultural Marketing & Cooperatives (DAMC), Bhutan Agriculture & Food Regulatory (BAFRA) and District Agriculture Extension Services constituted delegates from the Government of Bhutan. From the private sector side, the delegates comprised of project beneficiaries with whom the project team from Bhutan and India have been working to create Indian market linkages for select products. The project beneficiary participants were representatives from Go Green Farmers Group from Samtse Dzongkhag, which is working on cardamom and other products. M/s Chuniding Food participated in the fair to develop market linkages for its processed fruit, vegetable and spices based products. M/s Bhutan Green Products, a Team from Bhutan which will be processing eastern Bhutan farmers’ ginger into oil and powder participated as a processor. In order to explore export market opportunities for the exporters of Bhutan, one official from Bhutan the Exporters Association (BEA) also participated in the fair.

Bhutanese cardamom, ginger oil, ginger powder, quinoa, and processed fruits products were showcased at the fair. Market linkages opportunities are now being explored for these products. Whereas from India a range of Fairtrade labelled products in tea, coffee, spices, chocolates and cosmetics were displayed at the fair.

The participation in the trade fair got a very positive response from the delegates and also led to concrete leads and market opportunities being created. Apart from business match-making, the participants had the opportunity to learn about best farming and production practices, innovations for processing and packaging technologies, and other innovative and efficient agricultural technologies. The booth hosted by CSM and BCCI attracted an overwhelming number of visitors who were interested to learn about Fairtrade’s sustainability systems, Fairtrade products and to get connected with producers, processors, traders, and brands from India and Bhutan.

Besides the market linkages generated, the delegates from Bhutan, supported by CSM, had a fruitful meeting with Dr. Ashok Kumar Yadav, Advisor, Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), India. At the meeting the delegates discussed the possibility of the relevant government agency from Bhutan (MoAF) developing institutional linkage with APEDA for strengthening the works on organic programme in Bhutan. Dr. Yadav advised the delegates from Bhutan to write officially to APEDA to initiate the discussion for institutional linkages. On this, it was agreed that representatives from DAMC and BAFRA will appraise the Bhutanese Ministry of Agriculture & Forest and initiate the discussion with APEDA.