Silk Mark labels seen driving sale of pure silk

The growing popularity of products with Silk Mark lablels is expected to check the sale of artificial fabric like rayon and viscose under the garb of silk.

Vandana Kumar, chief executive of the Silk Mark Organisation of India (SMOI) said, "The increasing sale of Silk Mark labels shows that the interest in genuine silk products is on the rise. More and more pure silk would be sold as people become aware of it and see value in it''.

Sponsored by the Central Silk Board under the Ministry of Textiles, Silk Mark Scheme was launched in June 2004. Since then about 18 lakh Silk Mark labelled products have been sold in the market.

While 8 lakh such products were sold in 2005-06, 4.5 lakh products have been sold between April and August this year. The SMOI is expecting to sell about 14 lakh labelled products by the year-end.

The SMOI has been organising awareness programmes with the help of consumer interest groups and women associations about the value of pure silk.

Silk Mark festivals are also being held across the country to popularise pure silk products. It has also launched mobile testing vans to enable consumers to test the purity of silk.

The SMOI had participated in the Magic 2006 Apparel and Fashion Show, organised in Las Vegas between 28-31 August to build a brand equity for Indian silk in the international market.

The silk market in India is worth about Rs 8,000 crore and is growing at a rate of 10 per cent. Indian silk exports is estimated at about Rs 3,000 crore. The SMOI has set up ten centres in major cities and has about 460 manufacturers, retailers and exporters as its members.