‘Agarbathi manufacturers’ collaboration with National Bamboo Mission beneficial for industry’

The incense industry is mainly dominated by south Indian giants. How do you plan to collaborate to grow bamboo as it is mainly a crop from North East India? Has the association identified areas and farmers with whom they would be working?

The members of the association have been constantly working with the northeastern states and a few other states such as Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to encourage identification of the right species, growing bamboo as a plantation crop and sourcing by the agarbathi association members.

With the National Bamboo Mission undertaking an overview of the development work, the member companies are operating with these states along with NGOs, farmers, and entrepreneurs to create a conducive ecosystem in the country that will benefit the agarbathi and allied industries. Moreover, this initiative will not only help in generating more employment for Indian farmers but also promote the government’s vision to become more self-reliant.

What are the main challenges the incense industry faces in the country? There were concerns about the effect of the smoke arising from incense. How was it solved?

The industry is largely dependent on the availability of natural raw materials and it faced challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. Failing to ensure consistent availability of raw materials adversely affects industry growth and employment potential. Also, most of these raw materials like bamboo and jigat found in the forest are wild varieties. Their usage results in high wastages due to high fibre content and bristling of bamboo sticks, for example.

Therefore, with the help and support of the government, the agarbathi industry is currently helping to localise bamboo and jigat cultivation, with AIAMA playing an overarching role. The objective is to create a conducive agro-economic climate in the country that will benefit the agarbathi and other industries consuming similar materials.

Further, the entire impression on incense smoke is based on a biased study in China to promote their artificial incense products and use it as propaganda material against India’s traditional forms of incense. In India incense has been used for more than a millennium and has been interwoven with the Indian culture and social traditions for a long time.

How important are the cottage players in the industry? What percentage of the incense is produced in the cottage industry set-up?

The entire agarbathi making industry is divided into three sectors; raw agarbathi making, fragrancing and packaging, sales and distribution.

The raw agarbathi making part is handled by a mix of cottage and established industry players. Whether one is producing a single agarbathi or a million agarbathis, it is highly labour intensive and involves all kinds of cottage industry players, especially women.

Given the nature of the industry, it is highly dependent on women as making raw agabarthi requires delicate work and one needs the dexterity women possess. Therefore, today 3,00,000 women are employed through the cottage and rural segments in the agarbathi industry’s value and supply chain, who are either supplying to manufacturers as micro-entrepreneurs or have joined the workforce of member companies.

What percentage of the bamboo and jigat is domestically sourced and imported? Where do we import the raw material from?

Currently, bamboo comes mostly from northeast India and parts of Maharashtra and Chattisgarh, as a result, the wholesale and retail prices of bamboo culms are rising, Similarly, jigat is becoming scantier and hence costlier as traditional and local sources are fast drying up. With government support and the National Bamboo Mission, the condition has improved a lot but there are still some challenges that we face while procuring these raw materials. Other than domestically procuring the raw materials, they are imported from Vietnam and China.