Marketing of Village Products

Time : 3:15 p.m., Saturday, May 27
Venue : 4-237, MIT

About the session

The Handicrafts and the Handlooms industry in India together engage about 16 million people and have a turnover of $5000 million. The huge profit margin, however, percolating through the layers of agents and traders, is transformed to a meager sum at the craftsmen end.

There have been initiatives where the designers work together to address the contemporary market with innovative designs, e.g in Warangal, the dhurry weaving has been extremely profitable due to this designer intervention. Similarly in Etikoppaka, high quality wooden articles are being made using vegetable dyes. Recently there have been entrepreneurs who believe in fair trade and share the profit among the crafstmen. Although there have been a few portals addressing fair trade, most of these concentrate on trade outside the country.

In this discussion, we would delve into the possibilities of a prototype Eshop (AID news April 25) which would provide a direct craftsmen to consumer link. We would also look into what possible items could be shipped out from India and the other marketing modalities.

Have questions on this session? Please contact Sowmya Mahadevan.

Relevant Links

• An E-initiative for rural craftsman - AID News, Apr 25.