A week-long export marketing and development workshop for Bahamian artisans opened at the Wyndham Nassau Resort on Monday.
They will receive specialised training to enhance their competitiveness in the international marketplace.
The sessions, which attracted representatives from throughout the islands, move to Abaco beginning August 2.
This initiative is a collaboration among the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) under Phase Two of the 9th European Development Fund; Caribbean Trade and Private Sector Development
Programme, funded by the European Union; Bahamas Ministry of Tourism; Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), and the Caribbean Development Bank.
Caribbean Export has also been working with Bahamian artisans under the Onsite Caribbean Project to increase their export competitiveness by developing products designed to ensure that regional products can respond to international market demands and trends.
Caribbean Export is the regional export development and investment promotion organisation of the Forum of Caribbean States (CARIFORUM).
Ms Donnalee Bowe, BAIC’s Assistant General Manager of the Handicraft Development and Marketing Department, represents The Bahamas on the Board of Caribbean Export.
For more than 15 years Caribbean Export has promoted the growth of the region’s craft sector through the annual Caribbean Gift and Craft Show of which The Bahamas is a part, noted BAIC executive chairman Edison M. Key.
Since 2007, Caribbean Export has sought to strengthen the show and increase the export potential of the craft sector by undertaking initiatives to assist the sector to adopt a design-oriented approach.
With the establishment of the Caribbean Design Network (CDN) the following year, Caribbean Export contracted a regional team of product designers to support craft producers and product development activities in Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago under the Onsite Caribbean Project.
“We are happy to be a part of that,” said Mr Key, “because at the same time, our Handicraft Development and Marketing Department, has been throughout our islands conducting creative handicraft training courses utilising ingredients found in the local environment.
“Ours has been a success of no mean order as persons impacted by the global economic downturn take advantage of money-making opportunities created in our growing handicraft industry.
He urged Bahamian artisans to be ready for the next Caribbean Gift and Craft Show, which will be held for the first time in the Dominican Republic in 2011.
“The Show is being re-branded to take the promotion of gifts and craft in the region to new levels of excellence,” he said. “We are all for that.
“It will promote the ‘Best of the Best’ of the Caribbean and target regional and international trade buyers, with the aim of becoming the launch pad for new product collections which are design led. We must be ready for that.”
