The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (Trifed) will collaborate with the ministry of development of north eastern region (DoNER) and India Post to increase the sale of traditional tribal products from the region by four-fold in both national and international markets.

The aim of the collaborative marketing and logistic intervention is to “create a brand” for products from the region, increase awareness of the brand across the globe and provide national and international market access, a move which will also result in “enhancing” tribal entrepreneurship in the northeast, thereby increasing incomes and generating livelihood for the tribal communities, an official release from the ministry of tribal affairs said.

The collaboration aligns with the ‘Act East’ policy of theCentre to “promote” economic, strategic and cultural relations with the vast Asia-Pacific region at different levels, enhancing income generation of tribal suppliers and contribute effectively to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and the Vocal for Local, Buy Tribal initiative.

Under the administrative control of ministry of tribal affairs, the Trifed was set up in 1987 with the objective of promoting tribal art & craft, handloom and setting up of tribal community-owned minor forest produce Van Dhan Vikas Kendras for tribal artisans.

The planned interventions include the identification of suppliers and weaving clusters; sourcing of products, training and development of tribal resources, procurement and aggregation of tribal products and transportation and distribution of the selected products to Tribes India outlets and end customers. DoNER will work on these activities through its agencies and Trifed will use its extensive network of outlets and its e-commerce platforms for the marketing and branding in domestic and international markets, the release said.