Saturday, January 16, 2010

Mahabaleshwar Strawberry seeking a GI tag

Mahabaleshwar is a popular holiday resort and important pilgrimage site for Hindus famous Mahabaleshwar Temple. It is also known as strawberry city .now it has been plan to receive more reorganization and protection coming under umbrella of GI. GI application has been filed for the horticultural product namely as ‘Mahabaleshwar’ strawberry which is produced by around 1,500 strawberry farmers from Mahabaleshwar and surrounding areas. The strawberries produced in this region are unique owing to their nutritional value, water and glucose content and the high number of seeds because of the climate and soil in this hilly region.

According to an IPR consultant advocate Ganesh Hingmire - who filed the application of GI under class 31 as an agricultural fresh fruit containing application number 154. This application has been filed on 9feb,2009 on behalf of a group of strawberry farmers from Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani region which is classified as an eco-sensitive zone by the government of Maharashtra.

If the GI status is approved, every box of original Mahabaleshwar strawberries will have a hologram assuring you of its authenticity. It will increase exports, give the farmers legal protection and motivate the farmers and it can prevent the strawberry which grown in Nasik, Wai, Ahmednagar and Satara and being sold as Mahabaleshwar strawberries.

Process: An examination report has been received by farmer after the acceptance of proposal from the Government of India registry of geographical indications (RGI) in Chennai. The RGI has asked them to form a quality control body in order the get the final stamp of approval.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The strawberries from Mahableshwar are different owing to the special climatic and soil conditions here. “The sucrose content is the highest at 11 per cent, water at 80 per cent and acidic content at mere nine per cent. While the fruit from Wai, Nashik and other areas only have around six per cent of sugar and 40 per cent of water, the rest is acidic, which is why they taste sour,