INDIA: Orissa invests in marketing traditional confectionery product - MEMBERS

By just-food.com editorial team | 16 August 2002

The Indian region of Orissa is investing Rs 1 crore (US$200,000) in marketing the traditional confectionery product chhenapoda.

The Orissa Milk Federation (OMFED) says it lost out on another confectionery product, rasagolla, which has become associated with neighbouring West Bengal, and is determined not to let the same happen with chhenapoda.

OMFED managing director Surest Mohapatra is quoted in the Times of India as saying: "At the national-level everybody talks of rasagolla as a West Bengal product, though Orissa for centuries has been known for preparing it."

OMFED has been assisted by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to develop the necessary technology for mass production and national distribution.

"The NDDB experts had been doing the research for the last three years. They were taken to villages and important producing centres in Puri, Nimapada and Nayagada and shown the traditional technique of making chhenapoda by baking cheese in open fire," pointed out Mohapatra.