INDORE: Khatta Meetha Mixture and laung (clove) sev (deep fried crunchy Indian snack) that have been the most sought after namkeens are likely to be known globally as Indore’s snacks.At two-day World Sweets and Namkeen Convention 2019, Madhya Pradesh Mithai and Namkeen Association chairman Vikas Jain said that the association didn’t try to get Indore’s name as an origin place for any snack, but, now they are planning to work towards getting global recognition for Indore’s laung sev.Over 3000 delegates from across India took part in the convention that was conducted in the city for the first time and it was organized by Federation of Sweets and Namkeen manufacturers.Happy with the response of the manufacturers, organizer and federation director Firoz H Naqvi said, “We have several sweets and namkeen associations across India. Now, we are planning to come up with a unified brand- ‘Indian Meethai’. If everything goes as we plan, next Diwali we will be celebrating meethai week.”The sweet and namkeen industry has never faced recession and it’s the only industry which is growing with a rate of 20 per cent and has a business of one lakh crore. Indore alone does a business of 5000 crore in namkeen and has a growth rate of 18 per cent.India is not the only country that this industry caters to. United Kingdom (UK), Europe, America, Saudi Arabia and South East Asia are the clients as well, he added. Different slabs of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and ban of plastic packaging are the two major issues that the industry has been facing.There should be either five per cent tax or no tax on Khakra, badi and Mungdi as it is consumed by poor and rich alike, said executive committee member, Shivratan Agrawal.Whereas Naqvi said that the ban on plastic packaging is an issue that the manufacturers are facing as namkeens cannot be kept for long in paper.

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