How to revive and develop the traditional crafts in Vietnam

With the development of traditional handicraft villages, including bamboo and rattan crafts, many companies have been established. But until now, many of them are still struggling to find markets or dying under the competition from many sides.

types of baskets create accents for the space
types of baskets create accents for the space

According to tourism industry statistics in 2019, there were more than 19 million international visitors and millions of domestic tourists, there are potential customers for us to serve but it seems that Vietnamese bamboo and rattan companies have yet to find a way to conquer.

Although products are always improving and diverse with many design models, it still does not meet the tastes and needs of consumers. The traditional way of marketing and selling have not been properly invested in an overall development strategy, not changed to new methods, neither focused on communication, marketing, etc. Most are spontaneous and locally developed. As a result, handicraft villages have gradually gone down, losing their inherent advantages.

The trend of developing products from bamboo and rattan, create new craft revolution:

  • Create decorative handicrafts with accents, which are suitable for modern life.
  • Looking for new raw materials such as water hyacinth, coir, seagrass… to diversify products.
  • Export to foreign markets.
  • Change designs, improve product quality regularly.
  • Focus on developing the domestic market, exploring the inherent potentials such as commercial areas, tourism, entertainment centers, …
rattan and bamboo handicraft village
rattan and bamboo handicraft village

Business advantages

With a high number of tourists each year, many shopping centers, tourist areas and malls, the sale of handicraft products will reach and attract people.

The value of Vietnamese culture and identity on each handicraft product is a basic competitive advantage that needs to be paid more attention by businesses and researches the needed market goods to produce suitable products. International tourists are not only interested in using the product, but also the story and the production process.

Developing bamboo and rattan in rural areas is an effective solution to make the best use of available human resources and natural resources, thereby creating income for people and contribute budget to the locality. That facilitates the promotion of trade development and handicraft village tourism.

Bamboo and rattan products are made by craftsmen so it is easy to take advantage of many seasonal workers. On the other hand, the workplace is also easier to find and less expensive than other industries. It has low training costs and quick training time.

Opportunity:

The consumer market is still expanding. The trend of using environmentally friendly products is gradually dominating the market. Especially foreign markets such as the US, Japan, UK, … have high affordability.

Applying advanced technology to some stages in the production process helps to produce products faster to meet the great needs of the market.

Creating and developing new product trends are appearing more and more.

Government and local development support helps businesses grow.

Producing high-class bamboo and rattan baskets
Producing high-class bamboo and rattan baskets

Besides the opportunities, businesses also face many difficulties:

Labor competition with other craft villages and other industries.

Raw materials are less and less scarce, depending on the supply from outside provinces, high transportation costs lead to high product prices, measures to cultivate and preserve raw materials locally.

Difficult to produce at large scale.

Poor infrastructure, limited technology.

Product competition with other countries like China and Thailand.

Must produce on a large area.

The ability of businesses to understand the market, branding and trade promotion is weak.

 

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