Dokjong handicrafts start to gain international recognition
Dokjong handicrafts start to gain international recognition
Dokjong handicraft products are selling well in the domestic market and are now being recognised by foreign customers, especially after the products were awarded One District One Product (ODOP) certification from the Ministry of Industry andCommerce in the past few months.
Director of Dokjong Handicraft Ms Chemsamone Phommachan told Vientiane Times last week about their sales and marketing during her attendance at the 13th Lao Handicraft Festival 2014 at Lao-ITECC in Vientiane.
She said their handicraft products, such as handmade bags, purses and other souvenirs made from silk and textiles, are selling well in the domestic market but now the products are gaining interest from foreign customers as well.
Ms Chemsamone said her shop has recently received orders from French customers and has already exported three shipments to them. We usually export more than 100 products in each shipment and we will make the products according to customers' specifications and design, she said.
Although our products sell very well, we don't have any plans to open branches in other provinces yet because it takes a lot of capital to expand that way. Mostly we sell our products from our shop and sometimes produce them according to customer orders, she commented.
After the product was awarded ODOP certification, it was obvious that more and more customers came to order the products, in particular from the government sector who commissioned us to make souvenirs for government guests attending important meetings in Laos. But for the private sector, they like to order bags and purses, Ms Chemsamone explained.
The shop sells more than 200 products each month which is an impressive number for us, she said.
Ms Chemsamone said they planned to increase the volume of their output in response to the high demand of the market. “We don't worry about production capacity, if there are more orders we can make more products because we have adequate workers and raw materials.”
“We are worried about the coming of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) next year because there will be an inflow of several handicraft products from neighbouring countries and their products will compete strongly for our market niche.”
“Nevertheless, we will keep to our unique style and will also increase the quality of our handicraft products, making them more elaborate if necessary, to ensure they will be able to compete with other countries' products,” she said.
Ms Chemsamone added that in the past few years several Chinese products have entered the Lao market but they have had limited success because our products have a strong advantage in quality and unique style.
vientiane times
