24 Sep 2021 | 04:12am IST
It’s a very long road ahead
The Feni policy has been notified but it is obvious a lot needs to be done on the ground if the association’s dreams of an increase in the popularity and sale of the product have to be achieved
Team Café
The time has come for
Feni,
that most Goan of
drinks to be promoted aggressively to ensure that sales increase. To that end,
the government could consider selling it at duty free shops starting with the
Goa airport and at the cruise liner port. This was articulated by members of the
Goa Cashew Feni Distillers and Bottlers Association as they met yesterday to
hail the notification of the Goa Feni policy 2021.
Hanzel Vaz, Founder Cazulo Premium Feni
said the promotion of the category could do wonders for the state. Speaking on
the sidelines he said if the popularity of feni increases that would then mean
the growing of more trees. He said “These trees don’t need water, pesticide and
importantly no animal will attack it. It is a exotic plant which originally
came from Brazil” he went on to say that from the point of sustainability it
was the best crop to grow. He said it was a double cash crop, whereby one could
make money from the nuts and then from the feni. He said in Goa, there was
always a discussion about land, the trees he said could be cultivated on the
sloping hills and this would begin the process of afforestation and add
economic value substantially. A farmer he said could plant and would have to
wait for the tree to grow in five to seven years. He cited the example of
Europe where the cultivation of grapes increased dramatically as the value of
wine increased over a period of time. So, he said in the same way if the price
of feni increased, people would be interested in cultivating more.
When asked how the association intended to increase the
consumption of feni he said every menu in Goa seemed to be awash with scotch,
gin and other drinks and it was glaring that feni was missing. That he said had
to change. He said “We need bartenders, F&B managers promoting it and the
way to do that was through cocktails. That was how gin moved up in popularity.”
He then pointed out that culinary institutes in Goa did not teach its students
how to handle feni. Hanzel said he was shocked to learn that Goa University had
a module to learn how to make wine, this in a state where grapes were not
grown. He said he was now conducting guest lectures at the Agnel Ashram and IHM
so that students could learn what to do with feni.
He said it was important to remember that when a cocktail was
consumed in Calangute, families in Valpoi would benefit directly and this was
very important to realise in the feni business. This transfer of wealth he said
was very important.
Hanzel ended by saying GTDC ought to help them to promote the
product internationally. He said “If they have a show or a promotion, feni
should be present and importantly members of the association should be present
to talk about the product and not some Russian or any other person from where
the show was being conducted.”
At the press conference Gurudatta Bhakta, president, GCFDBA
expressed their gratitude to chief minister, Dr Pramod Sawant for initiating
the notification of the ‘Goa Feni Policy, 2021’ and also the Late chief
minister Manohar Parrikar for initiating the ‘Feni Policy’ and former CM
Laxmikant Parsekar for giving feni the status of ‘Heritage Spirit of Goa’. He
also complimented commissioner of excise, Shashank Tripathi, for paving the
path for stakeholders to chalk out a roadmap for feni and former commissioner
of excise, Menino D’Souza for initiating this process.
Bhakta thanked the team of Levisions Martins and Deepak Parab of
the department of science and technology for initiating a geographical
indication (GI) status for cashew feni. He said, “The GI is an intellectual
property right (IPR) provided by the Government of India to protect cashew feni
and its stakeholders from any attempt to infringe, appropriate or dilute the
status of cashew feni as the ‘Heritage Drink of Goa’.
Speaking on the occasion, Hansel Vaz, secretary, GCFDBA said the
feni industry directly injected revenue to all of Goa’s rural and marginal
farmers and hinterland communities who operated without any government support
or subsidy. “The present prevailing system is unique to the world and exclusive
to Goa and allows communities to themselves remain self-sufficient by adding
value, skill upgrade and reducing farm waste through cashew distillation. This
approach is in sync with the prime minister’s philosophy of an ‘Aatmanirbhar
Bharat’ (self-reliant India)” Vaz said.
Tukaram Haldankar, treasurer, GCFDBA sought the support of the
state to help in exporting, Goan cashew feni to other countries and states
within India. “The state government must create a sponsored initiative to
promote feni as the ‘state drink of Goa’. We want to take our Goan feni to the
world” Haldankar said.
They all bemoaned the fact that some parties in the industry
were selling fake stuff in the market that could end up destroying the
category. Mac Vaz of Madame Rosa and founding President of The Goa Cashew Feni
Distillers & Bottlers Association said this was a serious challenge which
had to be tackled.
This
is possibly the last pre industrial drink still being made in any part of the
world and as the world moves increasingly towards mechanization, this still
remains a handmade product which can be sold at a premium. One can perhaps wish
them all the very best.