KATHMANDU: Norway became the first country to register Nepali pashmina brand while Australia is the first country to grant a confirmation letter for registering it.

“Australia was the first country that gave us a confirmation letter regarding our application for brand registration and now, after a month Norway has registered Nepali pashmina brand,” said a delighted Shanker Prasad Pandey, president of Nepal Pashmina Industries’ Association (NPIA).

The association has made a logo of Nepali Pashmina, ‘Chyangra Pashmina’, for its brand registration in the international and national markets. NPIA has also started its brand registration in the EU and Switzerland, Korea, Japan, America, Canada, and Russia.

“We are going to apply to 14 more countries aside from the 11 to whom the application for brand registration has already been forwarded,” Pandey said adding that within the next fiscal year apart within the EU Nepali pashmina brand will be registered in 26 countries.

NPIA has launched its brand registration programme to check fake products being exported in the name of Nepali Pashmina and to guarantee the quality of the products.

Nepali pashmina does not cover major markets. Therefore, even an export of Rs 10 billion is a huge business in the international market. According to Pandey, “We are forced to register Nepali pashmina’s brand logo though it is time-consuming. The government has granted us priority, but we are working in coordination with an Australian company ‘Mitrata Foundation’ for the brand registration.”

Pandey added that the process was quite expensive and there is no government support. Till date, NPIA has spent around Rs 5 lakh. “It’s getting hard enough getting the money to spend on the process. We have to pay heavily during the registration, counting the advocate charges and brand registration process,” said Pandey adding that to complete the initiation NPIA needs a budget of Rs 1.24 crore from the government and that it is hopeful that the government will allot the budget.

Due to lack of a brand name for Nepali pashmina, different countries are selling low quality products in the name of Nepali pashmina but which are made of viscous polyester, wool, cotton and other textile materials. More than 50 per cent of the local market has been taken by fake pashmina, said NPIA which is also planning to start a campaign in the local market by using hoardings explaining the quality of real pashmina at major tourist spots.

The total pashmina exported during the fiscal year 2007-08 was worth Rs 584,265,083, i.e. 21.78 per cent of the total export of handicraft goods. Pashmina worth Rs 2,24,468,491 was exported in the first three months of the current fiscal, an increase of 42.56 per cent over the same period the last fiscal year that saw export of pashmina worth Rs 157,460,067, according to Federation of Handicrafts Association of Nepal (FHAN).