Signs of revival in handicraft export

Signs of revival in handicraft export
eKantipur.com, 4-Jul-2007

As a dim indication of revival of handicraft exports, the declining trend of handicraft exports has slowed down in the past two months, reveals the statistics of Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal (FHAN).

According to the figures, cumulative handicraft exports during the 10th and 11th months of the fiscal year went down by 1.8 percent, whereas its exports had gone down by 4.65 percent till the ninth month.

Total exports during the first 11 months remained lower than that recorded during the same period last year.

FHAN's figure shows handicraft items worth Rs 2.43 billion were exported during the period, while the same was Rs 2.54 billion in same period last fiscal year.

The slump in the export of pashmina products, metal craft and handmade paper, which together make 41 percent of all handicraft exports from Nepal, is largely attributed for the fall.

Things still look bad for pashmina products, which make up nearly 19 percent of the total handicraft exports.

A total of Rs 448.62 million worth of pashmina products were exported in the 11 months of this fiscal year. It is a drop of 19.04 percent compared to the export recorded during the same period last year. The country had exported pashmina worth of over Rs 5.6 billion six years ago.

FHAN officials said pashmina export suffered mostly from tough competition exerted by similar Chinese and Indian products. Nepali entrepreneurs' inability to adapt to the new market trends, develop new products and failure to maintain a standard of quality contributed to the loss of market.

The industry had also received a setback recently when Japan stopped exports from five companies and started verifying them for authenticity. Apart from Japan, other countries like Italy and Spain have also called pashmina entrepreneurs to define the products.

Export of metal craft also declined by about 10 percent to Rs 349.12 million during the period. Export of handmade paper products also slid by 5.96 percent to Rs 218.29 million.

The export of woolen goods plummeted by 27.36 percent during the period.

According to FHAN, Rs 571.48 million worth of woolen goods and felt products were exported in the first 11 months of the 2005/06 fiscal year while in the same period this year Rs 415.13 million worth of woolen goods and Rs 185.92 million worth of felt products were exported bringing the combined export to Rs 601.07 million.

Cotton goods, allo goods, other textile products, silver jewelry, leather goods, incense, thanka art, ceramics products, bone and horn products, plastic items and stone craft saw improvement in export this year.

These products brought in foreign currency equal to Rs 567.78 million in the first 11 months of this year, compared to Rs 517.08 million in the same period last year.