'Eri silk will be promoted in European countries'

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, November 9: “The Eri silk of Assam is going to be promoted in the European countries as the daily wear silk for its warm and smooth quality,” said the research scholar of Silk and author from Denmark Ole Zenther recently in a conference in the city. The conference was organized by Fabric Plus private limited to take initiative in promoting Assam Silk globally.

Zenther said: “Among all the silk of Assam, Pat silk is famous globally for its quality and shine. However, the Muga and Eri silk have not got the fame and promotion unlike Pat silk. Muga silk is only produced in Assam and it is very difficult to spread the production of Muga silk in other places due to its need of sensitive environment, but Eri silk is transportable and also can be used as daily wearable cloth, which will be more qualified than any other cloth. We, therefore, are promoting the Eri silk in the European countries through organizing talk shows and live experience of wearing Eri silk. We already have conducted 50 talks on Eri Silk and got good response from the people there.”

Another researcher and author from Denmark, Rie Koustrup, who was also present in the conference, said: “I persolly experienced the warmth of Eri silk and its smoothness which is much better than others. My daughter is a designer and so, we are planning to make some baby clothes from this Eri silk, which will be much affordable. We also used the Eri bed sheet which is appropriate for the places like Denmark.”

The authors have already written a book on Indian and South Asian silk, which is going to be iugurated in Agriculture and Forestry University of Nepal. The programme was also attended by Maging Director of Bodoland Regiol Apex Weavers & Artisans Cooperative Federation Limited (BRAWFED) NN Ra Patgiri, Deputy Director in charge of Indian Institute of Handloom Textile (IIHT) Guwahati OP Kotla, Maging director of North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation (NEHHDC) Dhiraj Thakuria and maging director of Fabric Plus Dilip Barooah.