Delhiites enjoy Varanasi’s GI delicacies

Varanasi: Tirangi Barfi and Lal Peda, both Geographical Indication (GI) tagged delicacies of Varanasi, are stirring the taste buds of Delhites at the five-day-long International Food & Hospitality Fair Aahar-2023 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
The event, which will come to an end on Saturday, has been organised by the department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) from March 14 to 18. The DPIIT has set up a GI Pavilion to promote GI certified goods among domestic as well as international buyers.
The GI expert, Padma Shri Rajni Kant told TOI that eight signature products of Varanasi and other districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh, which got GI tag with the support of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Lucknow, have been put for display and sale in the exhibition.
“Besides Tirangi Barfi and Lal Peda of Varanasi, the other GI goods of eastern UP include Aadamchini Rice of Chakia (Chandauli), metal utensils of Mirzapur, Metal Repoussé craft of Varanasi, Nizamabad black pottery of Azamgarh, Gorakhpur’s terracotta utensils, Surkha Guava of Prayagraj and Amla of Pratapgarh,” he said.
“Aahar 2023 has given a platform to the selected 50 GI-tagged food and hospitality products from all over the country with full facility free of cost,” he said adding that the buyers from 40 countries of the world have come to the exhibition and foreign stalls have also been set up, due to which the producers of GI goods are directly connecting with them and taking orders.
The assistant general manager of NABARD Varanasi, Anuj Kumar Singh said that NABARD is continuously supporting GI and Post GI exercises, which will increase the export of these products in the coming times. “We are getting tremendous response from the visitors. The sweets we had brought with us were sold out within two days in the exhibition, and we have to bring more from Varanasi to meet the demand,” said Kamlesh Singh, the producer of Lal Peda, and Krishna Kumar Gupta, the maker of Tirangi Barfi.
Similar was the view of the producers of other goods including Anil Kasera, Hariom Singh, Chhote Lal Maurya, Garib Prajapati, Lakshmi Prajapati, Munna Patel and Krishna Shukla.
“We express our gratitude to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the promotion of GI products,” they said.