New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has announced that its turnover for 2019-20 reached Rs 88,887 crore, "which no FMCG company can match", powered by the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This is the biggest success story of KVIC ever scripted, it said.

"The last five years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has seen the widest acceptance of "brand Khadi" in India", it added.

"The total Khadi and village industries turnover in the year 2019-20, has reached whopping Rs 88,887 crore, which no FMCG company can match", KVIC said.

While the production of Khadi, the most eco-friendly product of sustainable development, has more than doubled in the last five years, since 2015-16; the sale of khadi has gone up by nearly three times during the same period.

Similarly, the village industry (VI) sector has also seen a phenomenal growth in the Modi era with production and sale going up by nearly 100 % in the last five years.

Looking at the performance in the last one year, the turnover of Khadi registered a growth of 31% from Rs 3,215.13 crore in 2018-19, to Rs 4,211.26 crore in 2019-20. The turnover of Village Industries products reached to Rs 84,675.39 crore in 2019-20, registering a growth of over 19% from the previous year, i.e. 2018-19, which was at Rs 71,077 crores.

Khadi's unprecedented growth during the Modi era can also be gauged by the fact that Khadi production since 2015-16, has grown at the average of 19.45% per annum which was merely 6.25% during the previous government from 2004 to 2014.

Similarly, Khadi's sales grew exponentially during the Modi government at the annual rate of 27.6% which remained as low as 6.65% from 2004-2014.

KVIC Chairman, Vinai Kumar Saxena attributed Khadi's phenomenal growth to the sustained efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, creative marketing ideas of Minister for MSME, Nitin Gadkari and the active support from various ministries.

"As a result of government's sustained efforts to revive the Khadi industry and the Prime Minister's repeated appeals from various platforms including his radio address "Mann ki Baat", to adopt Khadi as a necessity of daily life, the KVIC has been continuously going up the growth trajectory," Saxena said.

KVIC's performance in the year 2019-20, assumes greater significance. As compared to the previous year, i.e. 2018-19, it registered an increase of 31% in the sale of Khadi and over 19% rise in the sale of village industry products despite facing odds like nationwide lockdown in wake of Covid-19 and pan-India anti-CAA/NRC protests in February-March 2020.

Saxena said : "He was expecting higher results; however, due to these agitations and lockdown, several Khadi exhibitions, planned in the months of February and March were cancelled and the year-end clearance sale could not happen".

While the Village Industries (VI) products worth Rs 33,425 crore were produced in 2015-16; production went up by 96 % to Rs 65,393.40 crore in 2019-20. It also recorded an increase in sale of products by nearly 110% from Rs 40,385 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 84,675.39 crore in 2019-20.

Besides the Khadi apparels, a wide range of village industry products like cosmetics, soaps & shampoos, Ayurvedic medicines, honey, oils, tea, pickles, papads, hand sanitizers, confectionery, food items and leather items too has attracted a large number of consumers across the country and abroad. This resulted in increasing the production and sale of village industry products by nearly two times in five years.

Notably, KVIC has also made sustained strides to garner support from various state governments, PSUs like Air India, IOC, ONGC, REC and others, colleges, universities, Indian Railways and Ministry of Health among others. Further, in the village industry sector, KVIC boasts of over 150 products with in-house capacity of excellence in fields like bee-keeping, pottery and bakery, KVIC said.

--IANS san/sdr/