Hyderabad, August 13: Like Darjeeling Tea, Banarasi Silk and Tirupati Laddu, Hyderabadi Haleem will soon get Geographical Indicator (GI) tag protecting the name from being used by any other city.
Haleem, the famous and delicious Iranian dish, is back in focus with the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramzan. Haleem is available literally by tonnes in every nook and corner of Hyderabad city, during Ramzan as Muslims prefer to break their dawn-to-dusk fast with his nutritious syrupy dish.
S Ravi, Patent manager and Intellectual Property consultant of Adhikari IP Consultants, on Wednesday said his company had filed for patent with the GI Registry of India on behalf of the Haleem Makers Association of Hyderabad. “We hope that Hyderabadi Haleem will be granted GI tag before the end of Ramzan. Consequently, no other city will be able to make or market the dish as Hyderabadi Haleem.”
“Hyderabad is as famous for its haleem as for biryani and the GI tag will go a long way in securing the rights of Hyderabadis over their dishes,” Ravi said. He said the association currently had only fifteen members and many more will join it as there were thousands of hotels and eateries in Hyderabad who make and sell the haleem with ghee, gosht (meat) and wheat as its main ingredient.
Association pesident and Pista House owner Mohammed Abdul Majeed said his product would be available not only in Hyderabad but in eight other cities, including Saudi Arabia.
Gati, the leading transport company and supply chain, has tied up with Majeed to deliver the dish within hours. “By 2 pm every day, our haleem will be ready and reach within a few hours other cities, including Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune and Kochi,” Abdul Majeed said.
Pista House claims that it already had 15,000 orders for haleem from abroad. The eatery has now provided the facility to customers to make 24 hours advance booking for haleem through SMS. “It will be delivered at your doorstep next evening,” he said.
Pista House has set its sight on other markets with sizeable population of Hyderabadis, including London and the United States. “We are waiting for the clearance by FDA of USA to start commercial marketing of our product. Through our R&D, we have developed a variety of haleem and a packaging system which will give it a shelf life of six months. But we will ensure that our product is consumed with in a month,” said Majeed.
With several prominent brands of haleem entering the Hyderabad market, including the addition of dry fruits, chicken, cream and what not, the competition has become fierce and tough.
“During the month of Ramzan, haleem is a business of hundreds of crores of rupees,” says an insider.
-Agencies