North East News Agency

India football captain Baichung Bhutia announced his decision to associate himself with the cause of promoting tribal products.Baichung Bhutia will be part of the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd’s (TRIFED) initiative of associating eminent people from tribal communities to promote tribal products.TRIFED has a chain of 28 retail outlets under the name of Tribe India in 22 cities across the country.

The star footballer, who belongs to the Bhutia tribe of the North-Eastern state of Sikkim, visited the Tribe India showroom in the capital.Products endorsed by the India captain Baichung Bhutia will be available for sale in all Tribe India outlets.According to official figures, the sale of tribal products in these outlets have gone up from Rs.5 million in 2004-05 to a whopping Rs 16.8 million in 2005-06.

Some new products were added to the list last year - Pashmina shawls, dehydrated apricots and yak wool shawls from Leh and Himachal Pradesh; textile items from the northeast; organic food items from Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and herbal formulations from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

In all probability, Baichung Bhutia is the first sportssperson to promote tribal products.

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