Due to communication barriers rural entrepreneurs were facing problems in selling their products.
Khasi oranges attracted few buyers at the Zest fest here in Bangalore today. The fest reported lack of salesbecause of less footfall..
Orange farmers from Meghalaya ,said that the business flopped at first day but they are expecting to make good sales on the second day of the ZestFest.
Morinshir, owner of the stall selling Khasi oranges said, “I’m a farmer from Khasi village and I only cultivate oranges, yesterday I managed to sell 20 kg oranges. Today I expect more.”
Anoop, one of the stall owners said, “All the expenses were taken care of by the organizer. Since yesterday I’ve just made a profit of a few thousand rupees by selling honey and pickles.”
Vicky, technical associate and organizer of the event said that the main aim of the event is to promote the ‘Khasi oranges’ of Meghalaya and also promote entrepreneurship amongst the rural people. Khasi is a small village sharing a border with Bangladesh and hence, people here do not know any other language than Bengali which is their mother tongue.“This might have created a communication gap between the stall owners and customers,” said Vicky. However, they were given training on basics of Hindi, English and Kannada before coming here, to bridge the communication gap, he added.
Daniel Lyngdoh, another stall owner said, “This is my first time selling my brand in some other city. Out of the eight stall owners only one or two have had the opportunity to sell their products in different cities.”
One of the officials organizing the event said that, the event started yesterday and tomorrow it will be held at Forum mall, Kanakapura and on Sunday it will be held at the Lalbagh botanical garden.
Vicky said that we have been organizing “Zestfest” from last three years in places like Delhi, Shillong and West Bengal. It is the first time in Bangalore and we expect to organise Zestfest every year.
Dr. S R Keshava, economics professor at Bangalore University, said, “The organizers must carry out a thorough research before setting up such events. Market analysis in accordance with the product has to be done to avoid loss in any business.” He further said that this kind of exposure to the farmers is appreciable, when their expenses are taken care of.
