PANAJI: The Goa Cashew Feni Distillers and Bottlers Association (GCFDBA) hailed the notification of the ‘Goa Feni Policy, 2021’.
Speaking at the media conference held in the city on Thursday, Gurudatta Bhakta, President of GCFDBA, said: “On behalf of the stakeholders of the Cashew Feni industry, we would like to express our gratitude to Chief Minister, Dr Pramod Sawant for initiating the notification of the ‘Goa Feni Policy, 2021’.
The notification of the Feni Policy in the state will lead to rapid intervention and important improvements which will positively impact the feni industry as a whole.”
Bhakta also expressed his gratitude to 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’.
According to Bhakta, the GCFDBA had achieved success in creating awareness and raising standards for the betterment of cashew feni in Goa and worldwide. Bhakta 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 of GCFDBA said that 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 of 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.
