The hope for the famous Deoghar peda finding a global market has been raised after a consignment of the sweet was dispatched to the Middle East for the first time a few days ago.

“We sent a consignment of 32 kg of peda to Bahrain last Wednesday and expect a favourable response,” said Sudhir Kumar Singh, the managing director of the Jharkhand government-run Medha Dairy, a venture of the Jharkhand Milk Federation, that made the peda at its Deoghar plant, adding this raised a hope of finding a global market for their product.

The peda is a semi-soft sweet made of khowa (thickened milk) and sugar that is garnished with elaichi (cardamom seeds), pista (pistachio nuts) and keshar (saffron).

It has become synonymous with Baidyanath Dham or Baba Dham (as Deoghar is known for its famous Shiva temple) and the pilgrims take it home almost as a ritual.

“The sweet content is very small in Deoghar peda, limited to just 10 per cent of the quantity of khowa,” assured Singh.

He added they followed strict quality control of each and every ingredient at their own laboratories before using those for making product.

“Not only that, we had sent samples a few months back and that passed the tests conducted by the authorities in Bahrain,” Singh informed, adding that raised their hope for bagging further supply orders from abroad.

“The consignment was sent to Al-jazira Group BSC of Bahrain through DM Enterprise, a Calcutta-based firm that is registered with the Agriculture and Processed Food Products

Development Authority, a central government agency meant for promoting export of such products,” he replied when asked how it materialised.

The present consignment — 80 400-gram packets weighing 32 kg — was sent, Singh further informed when asked the details, adding the packets had Baidyanath Dham Peda written in Arabic as well.

“If the customers there like the peda they will hopefully ask for more which, in turn, may raise the demand and our chances of exporting more,” he elaborating why this was encouraging for them.

The district administration of Deoghar had earlier, in 2020, initiated a process of obtaining GI (geographical indication) tag for Deoghar peda from Chennai-based GI Registry and also organised a meeting with the local peda sellers for apprising them about its importance as that would bring in the prospect of better branding and marketing of their product.

There are about 500 peda sellers in the temple town who do business of an estimated Rs 50 crore every year, maximum sale being in the month of Shravan when devotees throng the town during the Shravani Mela.