A Tribal Artisan Empanelment Mela, organised by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) in association with the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Paderu, was held in Araku Valley on Thursday to link tribal artisans with national markets.

Inaugurating the mela, Alluri Sitharama Raju District Collector T. Nishanthi said a TRIFED team from New Delhi and Hyderabad would assess locally made tribal products and select quality items for marketing through TRIFED’s nationwide retail network.

The Collector stressed the need to improve packaging, labelling and branding to meet market standards and announced that the district administration would organise specialised training programmes on the subject within the next one to two months.

Around 120 tribal artisans from 11 Agency mandals displayed bamboo crafts, lacquer toys, Araku coffee, pottery, honey, millets, spices and other forest-based products.

TRIFED Regional Manager Bhaskar Jha explained the empanelment process and marketing opportunities available to tribal artisans.