Bamboo and rattan weaving export profession and the role of "midwife" of enterprises

(Baonghean) - In recent times, despite difficulties in operations, enterprises and cooperatives operating in the production and consumption of rattan and bamboo products (MTD) in the province have persisted in their profession, constantly creating many product designs to meet the diverse needs of the export market, gradually increasing the value of the local traditional weaving profession.

Manufacturing MTD products for export at Duc Phong Company Limited.

According to statistics, the province has 43 MTD craft villages out of a total of 126 craft villages. In 43 MTD craft villages, there are nearly 10,000 people participating in the profession out of about 27,000 craft village workers in the province. However, according to estimates by the Nghe An Province Cooperative Union, up to now, only over 50% of MTD craft villages are operating effectively, the rest are facing serious difficulties, about 5-7 MTD craft villages have stopped operating. The reason for the difficulties of MTD craft villages is the high increase in input materials, in previous years the price was 1,300 VND/kg of bamboo, now it is 5,000 VND/kg, while the output price increases slowly so the income from the profession is low. MTD craft requires working hard all day, only those who are good at it can earn 100,000 VND. Currently, in the province, there are only about 5 enterprises that purchase MTD products for the villagers (previously there were more than 10 enterprises). The good news is that despite facing many difficulties, these enterprises still strive to operate not only for profit but also with passion for the local traditional craft.

Duc Phong Company Limited is one of the typical enterprises in this field. Currently, the company is focusing on developing raw material areas in Quy Chau, Que Phong to ensure raw material sources for long-term production. The unit has organized 25 classes in Chau Thang, Chau Hanh (Quy Chau) and Dong Van (Que Phong) communes with 750 women and ethnic minorities participating. The goal is to train and raise awareness to ensure proper exploitation of linden trees. In addition, the unit focuses on doing a good job of marketing through fairs. Every year, the enterprise spends a large amount of money to participate in international fairs held in the Federal Republic of Germany. The advantage of MTD products is that they do not pollute the environment, so European customers are very fond of them. However, foreign partners also require high product quality, which must meet the product criteria set by partners in order to be exported. Therefore, the company regularly changes product designs and hires design experts to suit the tastes of foreign customers. The issue of quality control is carefully handled by the company through 3 steps: Input control through vocational training for workers; control of manufactured products and strict control before packaging for export. Thanks to that, no shipment has been returned by partners due to poor quality.

This year, Duc Phong Company Limited has directly exported 70% of its products, thus increasing the value of its products and the number of working days for its workers. Mr. Thai Dai Phong - Director of Duc Phong Company Limited happily said: "This year, the export market is good, production cannot keep up with orders, especially the company has exported to the US market and some European countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands, Turkey, Denmark, ... with main products including lanterns and clothes trays. In the near future, the company will continue to sign contracts with Iranian customers". By the end of September 2014, the company exported more than 500,000 MTD products of all kinds, reaching a value of more than 12 billion VND, the expected export value for the whole year is 20 billion VND. To achieve this goal, the company opened vocational training classes for workers in Quynh Luu and Yen Thanh, adding more than 400 workers, bringing the total number of workers to about 1,500 people in 35 production facilities and craft villages in the province specializing in producing goods for businesses.

In Yen Thanh district, Thang Loi handicraft cooperative is a unit specializing in acting as a "midwife" to purchase MTD products for local workers. Right from the time when the products were still facing difficulties in output, and the skills of the people were still weak, production did not meet the requirements of export goods. Mr. Tang Tien Huynh - Chairman of the cooperative went to Ha Tay (old) to learn about developing the profession and finding output for the products. After that, the chairman of the cooperative and technical staff regularly went to the production groups in the villages to popularize and guide the techniques and designs to help people minimize damaged products. Therefore, the products made by the people basically ensure export quality, with little damage. Not only in Yen Thanh, the cooperative has played a good role as a "midwife" to build and develop more MTD export craft villages in Dien Chau and Quynh Luu districts through vocational training and product consumption.

Currently, the cooperative has created jobs for 600 - 700 seasonal workers. The raw materials are refined by machines and supplied to the people. People only need to weave without having to spend time splitting bamboo and polishing each bamboo thread like before. Thanks to that, the production progress has increased by 1.5 times, the product quality is consistent, the value of labor day has increased by 1.5 times compared to before, each worker earns from 60,000 - 100,000 VND/day. In the first 9 months of the year, the cooperative exported products worth nearly 4 billion VND. Mr. Tang Tien Huynh - Chairman of the cooperative said: From the end of last year until now, the output for MTD products has been very favorable, the consumption market is abundant. However, many contracts have been refused because there are not enough production workers. The cooperative regularly encourages workers to work overtime to meet the delivery schedule.

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Vice Chairman of the Provincial Cooperative Union highly appreciated the role of enterprises as "midwives" in the following issues: Providing raw materials, technical guidance, vocational training, and product consumption for tens of thousands of rural workers in the province, helping people stabilize their lives and contributing to ensuring social security. Enterprises operating in this field do not make much profit but mainly operate for social purposes. While the labor force in craft villages is decreasing, and products are few, if enterprises are not passionate about their jobs, not enthusiastic, and easily give up, there is a risk that tens of thousands of MTD production workers in the province will not have jobs, affecting their income and life stability, causing the craft villages to gradually fade away.

Although businesses are trying to find more export orders, the workforce in this profession is decreasing. The reason is partly because the income of MTD profession is still low compared to the general level. At the same time, the raw material area of ​​​​lung trees is gradually shrinking... These are the current difficulties of MTD profession that need to be resolved promptly.

Article and photos:Quynh Lan