Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has approached Baba Ramdev to provide a fillip to sales of the forest produce in the state.
Ramdev has also shown his interest in purchasing various items in bulk quantities.
Mungantiwar, who met Ramdev here today, said he has assured to open a food court in Nagpur, which will be bigger than one in Haridwar, where herbal products will be available for sale.
"If we can tie up with Baba Ramdev, he has assured to open a big food court in Nagpur where all herbal products from state's forests as well as Patanjali will be available for sale," Mungantiwar said.
He said Ramdev has shown a keen interest in buying amla, honey, aloe vera, giloy and gooseberry.
Mungantiwar said that forests in state are rich in non-timber forest produce (NTFP) species including medicinal plants.
"We have started a 'Jan Dhan Van Dhan' outlet at Nagpur through which the Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC) sell forest produce at a cheaper rate. They have sold goods worth Rs 6 lakh in the last three months," he said.
The minister said the sales are "not sufficient" and government realised that medicinal products can be made available on a large scale though their current sales are very low compared to their production.
"To change the scenario and expand the market, I met Baba Ramdev today and discussed possibilities of expanding the market of our products with him. He (Ramdev) said that he would purchase various items in bulk quantities once the terms of business are decided," Mungantiwar said.
However, the minister added that today's discussion with Ramdev was at the primary level.
"This was a primary discussion. We are expecting a guarantee of sale of products from Baba Ramdev. Say if we produce one lakh honey bottles and he cancels the order, JFMC will suffer a loss," he said.
Mungantiwar clarified that the profit margin will go into the pockets of JFMC only as "government's role is only to support the JFMC and nothing else".
The Forest Department has established 12,517 JFMCs across 15,500 villages located in vicinity of various forests.
Members of JFMC are allowed to collect NTFP available in the areas assigned to them for their bonafide consumption.
Youths from the core and buffer zones of reserved forest are trained to produce medicinal products from forest and a total of 92 medicinal raw drugs were processed and marketed in the local sale counters.
Along with the medicinal herbs, certain value-added products such as 'Mahua Jam' and 'Shrabat', Aloe Vera products and 'Bija' glass (tumbler) are also being marketed by JFMC.
