04 November 2010
Fekri Al-Muafa was almost flying with joy as he skidded through the tiled floor of the Small and Micro Enterprise Service Agency.
"They want 100,000 piece of incense sticks! A Swiss company wants to buy Yemeni incense at an order worth USD 18,000," he blurted out as he ran spreading the news in the office.
Al-Muafa is not really getting any money from this deal as he is only the project officer for Handicrafts Export Production Program at SMEPS. The real beneficiaries of this deal are around 25 women from Aden and Lahj governorates at a rate of 2000 stick per day. Those women have been making incense as a part of a family tradition but it was not enough to make ends meet.
Al-Muafa, through this project, was able to connect the craftsmen with international markets. His efforts are finally paying off and Yemen's production industry will never see the handicrafts industry through the same eyes again.
Putting Yemen on the global map
It all started with Yemen's participation at SMEPS in international handicrafts fairs in Europe. The first event was held in Messa Frankfurt Exhibition in May 2008, where the Handicrafts Project presented an assortment of Yemeni handicrafts at the exhibition's gifts and souvenirs section.
"Our participation in those exhibitions taught us a lot. About how to customize our local handicrafts to the western preference, which exhibitions we should be present in and that our products are more of home decoration than gifts and souvenirs," said Al-Muafa.
2009 proved a good year for the project. Yemen participated in the Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt in February and was received well by potential clients.
Since then, including the recent incense deal, Yemen has received orders worth more than USD 100,000, mostly in samples not in mass products.
At the Ambiente 2010 Fair Yemen's corner became one of the most popular points and sometimes people waited in line to be able to inspect the samples and talk to someone about potential deals.
In 2010 Yemen started receiving mass production orders with requests for 3,000 items of handicraft such as baskets and stone burners.
The success has been put down to the consistency of Yemen's participation and the good presentation of products with sufficient information and has earned the trust of clients.
"This is why it is important for us not to stop participating in the specialized events," said Wesam Qaid, director of SMEPS. "We need to keep reminding the world that we exist, that we mean business and keep surprising them with our high quality unique products."
A view supported by ElPuente, the second largest fair trade company in Germany. They promised that if Yemen continued the good work the company will place orders for Yemeni handicrafts at encouraging prices in 2011.
Saving heritage
For generations making handicrafts in Yemen was a necessity. Most families used to make their own handicrafts including rugs, pottery and baskets, because they required them for personal use.
With modernization handicrafts were quickly replaced by modern furniture, turning handicraft making into a hobby for creating souvenirs.
SMEPS handicrafts project is currently working on 13 types, or as they call them "lines". The project focuses on skills that are passed through generations of certain families as part of the family legacy.
The lines identified by the project are: Gypsum, textile, rugs, stones, baskets, silver, metal, copper, pottery, incenses, wood, ceramics and embroidery.
A survey to establish which families produced what, where and how, was conducted in 2008. Based on the outcome of the survey, along with feedback from international conferences, seven lines were chosen for a pilot product development scheme.
The crafts in focus today vary from colored windows known as qamariaya and monuments of tourist sites made of gypsum to bamboo tree baskets of all sizes, stone burners, incense and Myrrh, rugs and special cousin covers as well as iron ancient scissors made from remnants of war.
During 2010, the project has focused on how to develop production of the handicrafts in order to have good quality products with beautiful finishing and elegant packaging.
A German expert called Joachim Siegel came to Yemen for two weeks just to do this.
During the first week workshops for the seven lines in the office were held. SMEPS invited families working in this traditional handicraft from all over the country as well as traders.
Siegel listened to their concerns, challenges and discrepancies and they discussed how to make their products nicer and more appealing to the western markets. They were given one week to integrate the advice into their products, so that Siegel can take back improved samples to show to the world.
Excitement spread like fire across the handicrafts industry. Soon the agency received calls from families and traders who wanted to be included.
The second week was dedicated for field visits to the homes and shops were the products were made. Siegel, who is also a silversmith expert, studied the equipment, patterns and ways of work and gave the producers ample advice from sizes, colors and safety, to pricing.
"Marketing our traditional handicrafts to the world is big news for us."
"But I am here to make sure that the products remain original and that we don't get carried away in our excitement and customize our work to the western taste so much that it becomes no longer Yemeni," said Amat albari Al-Adhi, who is probably the number one expert on Yemeni handicrafts and who is a culture and traditional expert at the antiquities department of the Ministry of Culture.
For this reason Al-Adhi was an integral member of the product development scheme and was included in all the meetings and field visits.
The only agency of its kind in the Middle East region
The Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service agency is a government body affiliated to the Social Fund for Development. It is the only agency of its kind in the region, providing technical assistance and expertise to businesses enabling them to prosper.
We consider handicrafts part of cultural heritage not just luxury but a source for income generation. Moreover maintaining tradition can only happen through marketing it," said Abdullah Al-Dailami head of the Cultural Heritage Unit at the Social Fund of Development .
Along with the Handicrafts project SMEPS works with the fish, coffee and honey industries.
"The difference between us and all the other projects working on small and micro businesses is that we are business to business oriented," said Wesam Qaid director of the agency. "We teach the businesses how to find new opportunities, give them tools and connect them with potential partners. This is why we are quite successful."
Gradually international organizations such as GTZ are turning their attention to this unexplored potential of Yemen's economy.
"The project has proved successful and we helped refine it through the last two years. It provides income for the poor families that produce the beautiful handicrafts," said Jana Hoeffken an advisor to the Private Sector Development Project at the GTZ.
The GTZ has been supporting the agency's handicrafts project through hiring consultants and sponsoring SMEPS participation in the international fairs.
"We hope to continue supporting this successful project," Hoeffken said.
This month's forward focus will be on enabling the local handicrafts industry to produce more, in order to cover the increasing demand.
"We've got the quality covered, now we are talking about quantity," said Al-Muafa.
He is doing this through connecting various families, working on similar products and encouraging them to share their product secrets with others. This way more people will be employed in order to produce larger quantities.
The plan is to have each handicraft line governed by certain families who have been the pioneers in that field and they, with the help of SMEPS, will ensure the quality does not fall in the quest for quantity.
Fekri Al-Muafa was almost flying with joy as he skidded through the tiled floor of the Small and Micro Enterprise Service Agency.
"They want 100,000 piece of incense sticks! A Swiss company wants to buy Yemeni incense at an order worth USD 18,000," he blurted out as he ran spreading the news in the office.
Al-Muafa is not really getting any money from this deal as he is only the project officer for Handicrafts Export Production Program at SMEPS. The real beneficiaries of this deal are around 25 women from Aden and Lahj governorates at a rate of 2000 stick per day. Those women have been making incense as a part of a family tradition but it was not enough to make ends meet.
Al-Muafa, through this project, was able to connect the craftsmen with international markets. His efforts are finally paying off and Yemen's production industry will never see the handicrafts industry through the same eyes again.
Putting Yemen on the global map
It all started with Yemen's participation at SMEPS in international handicrafts fairs in Europe. The first event was held in Messa Frankfurt Exhibition in May 2008, where the Handicrafts Project presented an assortment of Yemeni handicrafts at the exhibition's gifts and souvenirs section.
"Our participation in those exhibitions taught us a lot. About how to customize our local handicrafts to the western preference, which exhibitions we should be present in and that our products are more of home decoration than gifts and souvenirs," said Al-Muafa.
2009 proved a good year for the project. Yemen participated in the Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt in February and was received well by potential clients.
Since then, including the recent incense deal, Yemen has received orders worth more than USD 100,000, mostly in samples not in mass products.
At the Ambiente 2010 Fair Yemen's corner became one of the most popular points and sometimes people waited in line to be able to inspect the samples and talk to someone about potential deals.
In 2010 Yemen started receiving mass production orders with requests for 3,000 items of handicraft such as baskets and stone burners.
The success has been put down to the consistency of Yemen's participation and the good presentation of products with sufficient information and has earned the trust of clients.
"This is why it is important for us not to stop participating in the specialized events," said Wesam Qaid, director of SMEPS. "We need to keep reminding the world that we exist, that we mean business and keep surprising them with our high quality unique products."
A view supported by ElPuente, the second largest fair trade company in Germany. They promised that if Yemen continued the good work the company will place orders for Yemeni handicrafts at encouraging prices in 2011.
Saving heritage
For generations making handicrafts in Yemen was a necessity. Most families used to make their own handicrafts including rugs, pottery and baskets, because they required them for personal use.
With modernization handicrafts were quickly replaced by modern furniture, turning handicraft making into a hobby for creating souvenirs.
SMEPS handicrafts project is currently working on 13 types, or as they call them "lines". The project focuses on skills that are passed through generations of certain families as part of the family legacy.
The lines identified by the project are: Gypsum, textile, rugs, stones, baskets, silver, metal, copper, pottery, incenses, wood, ceramics and embroidery.
A survey to establish which families produced what, where and how, was conducted in 2008. Based on the outcome of the survey, along with feedback from international conferences, seven lines were chosen for a pilot product development scheme.
The crafts in focus today vary from colored windows known as qamariaya and monuments of tourist sites made of gypsum to bamboo tree baskets of all sizes, stone burners, incense and Myrrh, rugs and special cousin covers as well as iron ancient scissors made from remnants of war.
During 2010, the project has focused on how to develop production of the handicrafts in order to have good quality products with beautiful finishing and elegant packaging.
A German expert called Joachim Siegel came to Yemen for two weeks just to do this.
During the first week workshops for the seven lines in the office were held. SMEPS invited families working in this traditional handicraft from all over the country as well as traders.
Siegel listened to their concerns, challenges and discrepancies and they discussed how to make their products nicer and more appealing to the western markets. They were given one week to integrate the advice into their products, so that Siegel can take back improved samples to show to the world.
Excitement spread like fire across the handicrafts industry. Soon the agency received calls from families and traders who wanted to be included.
The second week was dedicated for field visits to the homes and shops were the products were made. Siegel, who is also a silversmith expert, studied the equipment, patterns and ways of work and gave the producers ample advice from sizes, colors and safety, to pricing.
"Marketing our traditional handicrafts to the world is big news for us."
"But I am here to make sure that the products remain original and that we don't get carried away in our excitement and customize our work to the western taste so much that it becomes no longer Yemeni," said Amat albari Al-Adhi, who is probably the number one expert on Yemeni handicrafts and who is a culture and traditional expert at the antiquities department of the Ministry of Culture.
For this reason Al-Adhi was an integral member of the product development scheme and was included in all the meetings and field visits.
The only agency of its kind in the Middle East region
Head of the Ambiente exhibition, visiting Yemen's corner and admiring the products on display. "I am glad that Yemen has become a regular participant it shows Yemen is serious about marketing its products to the world," she said. SMEPS
The Small and Micro Enterprise Promotion Service agency is a government body affiliated to the Social Fund for Development. It is the only agency of its kind in the region, providing technical assistance and expertise to businesses enabling them to prosper.
We consider handicrafts part of cultural heritage not just luxury but a source for income generation. Moreover maintaining tradition can only happen through marketing it," said Abdullah Al-Dailami head of the Cultural Heritage Unit at the Social Fund of Development .
Along with the Handicrafts project SMEPS works with the fish, coffee and honey industries.
"The difference between us and all the other projects working on small and micro businesses is that we are business to business oriented," said Wesam Qaid director of the agency. "We teach the businesses how to find new opportunities, give them tools and connect them with potential partners. This is why we are quite successful."
Gradually international organizations such as GTZ are turning their attention to this unexplored potential of Yemen's economy.
"The project has proved successful and we helped refine it through the last two years. It provides income for the poor families that produce the beautiful handicrafts," said Jana Hoeffken an advisor to the Private Sector Development Project at the GTZ.
The GTZ has been supporting the agency's handicrafts project through hiring consultants and sponsoring SMEPS participation in the international fairs.
"We hope to continue supporting this successful project," Hoeffken said.
This month's forward focus will be on enabling the local handicrafts industry to produce more, in order to cover the increasing demand.
"We've got the quality covered, now we are talking about quantity," said Al-Muafa.
He is doing this through connecting various families, working on similar products and encouraging them to share their product secrets with others. This way more people will be employed in order to produce larger quantities.
The plan is to have each handicraft line governed by certain families who have been the pioneers in that field and they, with the help of SMEPS, will ensure the quality does not fall in the quest for quantity.
Nadia Al-Sakkaf
© Yemen Times 2010
