In the Land of Mountains and Construction Cranes

Kazakhstan might look a bit different than expected if your only context is Borat. The city is ringed by the Tian Shan mountains and is packed with upscale stores. When you have a plethora of natural resources like oil and gas, you can borrow against it at cheap rates (about 6%) and re-lend at much higher ones (upwards of 12%), providing plenty of cash to finance development. This is exactly what has been going on in Kazakhstan for the last several years and the result is a city under the siege of construction cranes. There are shiny new malls, an area called the “financial center”, a soon to be constructed subway (despite a propensity for earthquakes in the region), and the piece de resistance, an under renovation ski resort and winter sports park playground called Medeu at the base of the Chimbulak Ski Resort that will be host to an upcoming Asian Winter Games—and maybe someday the Olympics. Almaty is definitely booming and makes Bishkek seem like a quaint small town.

There has, however, been a slowdown of sorts as the US mortgage crisis has caused many banks to call in loans and there is little ability/desire to restructure Kazakh debt. It appears the banks here are handling the pressure, but investors have slowed a bit as they wait to see how things shake out. And Almaty is not the only city sprouting buildings like mushrooms after a spring rain, the capital, Astana, has so much development going on that my host has commented that if she visits every three months she feels like she’s going to a different city each time with new buildings and roads sprouting up all over. It’s amazing what a preponderance of natural resources and an insatiable global demand can do for a country that is now free to make its own growth and development decisions.

As for my key purpose of this trip, sourcing products that could be sold as part of our fair trade collection of goods, the Kyrgyz seem to have an upper hand on their Kazakh neighbors. While there are certainly skilled artisans who draw from their traditions, I have yet to see the level of production and consistent quality in the handcraft sector that I saw in Bishkek. Perhaps I haven’t met the right person to show me this market, but from what I have observed, there are some very talented individuals, but they don’t quite fit our fair trade model. Another challenge in this market is that some of the best crafts come from wood, silver, fur pelts and leather – all items that are basically forbidden in environmental circles.

While the handcraft sector may be limited, the cultural choices are not as I was able to attend both the ballet and a classical music concert. The city is also sprinkled with painted camels which are auctioned off for charity. Here I am with my host Dana with one such camel located at the top of a cable car ride that provides a great view of the (smoggy) city of Almaty.

From Workshop to Workshops

With my workshop behind me, it was good to finally get out to the artisan workshops and see the products being produced. With felt being the specialty of the Kyrgyz it was good to finally see how this product was produced and the different quality levels that exist in the market. While some artisans buy dyed pieces in the market, most are making their own colors. The plain (white) felt is produced in several regions throughout the country but Naryn seems to be a favorite location to buy good quality felt.

While there are many interesting scarves, bags and hats, the products that seemed to have the best opportunity for sale in the US given the mix of quality, style and price are ornaments and jewelry. Adorable fish, birds, angels, stars and more made from felt and embroidered with cotton and glittery beads certainly have a market in the US and I was particularly intrigued by rings made from felt that look like different types of flowers. One major advantage of these items is that they are lightweight and won’t break in shipping! Since there are limited options for getting these products out of landlocked Central Asia this is a bigger deal than one might normally factor in.

I was also able to coax a few stories from people and learned that many artisans have incorporated home work into their business model, making an effort to hire women, who for reasons ranging from being disabled to having to care for children, can’t leave home to come to work on a regular basis. Some groups, such as the one who makes the birds and fish and the angels in the photo above, have also reached out to the migrant community (people who have moved from the villages to the outskirts of the city to find work) who are living in makeshift homes with no plumbing or proper services, giving them much higher than average wages to produce items based on set specifications. Once again, however, it was not the artisans relaying the stories so much as the people from CACSA passing along this information after the fact. The artisans, did however pose for some photos, like this one of Oaxana wearing a silk and felt scarf.

Driving around Bishkek helped me further understand this emerging market, where people are clearly living fairly comfortably and there is a reserved confidence about the economy. It seems the prevailing attitude is that if the government doesn’t get in the way this market has unlimited potential. At the same time, people are a bit concerned that prices will jump too quickly (e.g., cooking oil has more than doubled in the past year) and wages will not keep pace.

On a personal note, I was very pleased that my wireless connection at the hotel allowed me to log in and see that the Red Sox pulled off a rally to make it to the World Series--and at the time of this posting are actually leading two games to none in the fall classic! Though the talk of this town was much more about the World Rugby Final, which went to the South African Springboks over the English Roses.

E is for Embroidery, F is for Felt

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Here I am in a land full of mountains and challenged for vowels, where I have come to give a workshop an how to work with US buyers, addressing issues such as pricing, marketing and communication. The workshop, this past Saturday, was sponsored by the Central Eurasian Leadership Academy (CELA) and brought together artisans from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. For those readers who are geographically challenged, this is an area West of China, North of India and Northeast of Afghanistan. Travel note: This is the first country I’ve visited that shoots USD out of the cash machines?!

Felt items, and anything one can embroider, from clothes to hats to change purses, is in abundance here and there is quite a bit of “competition” among the Central Asian countries for who is known for what crafts and who is merely copying others. Prices also vary widely with Kyrgyzstan coming out somewhere in the middle and the Uzbeks supposedly taking the prize for having the lowest costs.

Sunday was spent visiting both a fairly standard shopping mall (indoors and warm) that had washing machines and cell phones along with traditional crafts (read: felt hats and mini yurts), and a local market (outdoors and chilly) that sold everything from three inch thick carrots and eight varieties of apricots, to cheap Chinese clothing and Russian dolls (read; typical market bazaar). It gave me a good sense of what I’d be seeing over the next couple days of visiting artisan workshops.

Not surprisingly, things here are quite different from Africa—except for the fact that every country is landlocked and all have different shipping and export laws. When I made the comment that this was in fact one similarity to Africa I was quickly told not to compare Central Asia to Africa as it had nowhere near the poverty, war, disease, etc. I guess it would be unfair to label Central Asia as a “developing” market so I’m going with the term “emerging” and staying a long way away from “third world,” for reasons that go way beyond the PC factor!

The most interesting thing I’ve learned thus far is that the people are very proud and do not like discuss their troubles. This issue arose when I asked about the ‘stories” behind the products or workshops, i.e., do they support women in some way or help the sick or needy or anything along these lines. Their response was “is this important?” Even getting them to elaborate on the history of a product or the design tradition is proving difficult. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that marketing is the norm for former Soviet Republics. Fortunately, the woman who runs the Central Asia Crafts Support Association (CACSA) understands the importance of having some stories associated with the products, though she is having a hard time convincing the artisans of this.

Oct 17 is UN World Poverty Day

In addition to Fair Trade month (and Halloween) October also has UN World Poverty Day. UNIFEM along with the Women's Funding Network have put together a pretty cool e-card to spread the word about this. In 2000, as part of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) world leaders pledged to cut poverty by half by 2015. Yet mid-way to the deadline, it is clear that many countries will not reach this goal — unless they do something radically different. The focus on women as economic drivers is one that EDImports has certainly seen first hand. We've watched children be educated, homes be built, medicine be purchased, and behind it all, self-esteem be nourished as women have become integral contributers to their both their family and local economies. The Economist called women “the most powerful engine” of global economic growth, estimating that over the past decade, they have contributed more to such growth than China. For more information on this, visit this list of facts and figures that show in real terms how gender equality can lead to economic growth.

I hope you'll have a chance to view the e-card and stand up for the rights of women to be economic contributors around the world.

Fair Trade Month is Great for Our Artisans

October is fair trade month and it has been quite a good one for many of the artisan groups from whom we source. And now another group, Muya Ethiopia, that makes our light and sheer scarves from Ethiopia, has been recognized as a new member of IFAT.

IFAT, or the International Fair Trade Association, is a global network of Fair Trade Orgnizations. Like the Fair Trade Federation in the US, (of which EDImports and our partner One World Projects are members), recognition by this group means that one's business practices uphold the principles and practices of fair trade. There are fewer than 25 companies from Africa recognized by IFAT and Muya is the first from Ethiopia.

When we visited their workshop in 2006 we were impressed not only by the organization and clearly pleasant work environment, with gardens and airy workshops, but also by the extra efforts Muya makes to help the artisans, such as a hot meal served daily and much above average wages. The quality of the place and people shows through in the final products as their weaving is among the very best in the country. Congrats to Muya on their acceptance to IFAT!

Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA)

A couple weeks ago, Bono, accepted the Liberty Medal for his humanitarian work in Africa and exhorted Americans to keep working to solve the world's problems and spoke of those who are without freedom.

"When you are trapped by poverty, you are not free. When trade laws prevent you from selling the food you grew, you are not free...When you are a monk in Burma this very week, barred from entering a temple because of your gospel of peace ... well, then none of us are truly free," Bono said.

Bono and the organization he co-founded, Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA), received the award from former Liberty Medal recipient Pres. George H.W. Bush at the National Constitution Center and he donated the $100,000 prize to DATA.

While some people don't agree with Bono's approach to solving the problems in Africa, as they often involve large amounts of aid, DATA also engages in product development projects through PROJECT RED. Though EDImports has not had the pleasure of creating any products for PROJECT RED, Hallmark recently announced that it had created some bags in Mali that will be featured, along with some cards and other items, at their stores this fall. The vendors who supply our mudcloth bags and much of our West African jewelry both participated in the program.

We congratulate them on their success!

Rwanda Baskets In the News

The New York Times ran a nice article yesterday in the Home & Garden section about the women of Rwanda and their handmade baskets which are available at Macy's. Believe it or not the group that was featured is the same group that we began working with back in 2003.

The president of the cooperative mentioned in the article, Irene Dukuze Mugaybzu, who we affectionately call "Duku," is shown in this photo, which can also be seen on our partner website, One World Projects.

Through our partner you can buy our wonderful Rwandan baskets made by this group. Often it takes small companies like ours to pave the way for larger companies like Macy's to come in. We're thrilled to have them as they certainly help improve quality standards and give a lot more work to the artisans than we could on our own. But, we still hope you'll consider our assortment of Rwandan items if you don't see what you want at Macy's!

War Is Expensive

This latest tidbit of disturbing information comes from a report recently posted on All Africa a good source for news from and about the continent.

"A new study shows that conflicts in Africa cost the continent over 300 billion U.S. dollars between 1990 and 2005 – an amount equivalent to all the international aid received by sub-Saharan Africa in the same period.

The results of the study were released Thursday in a report by Oxfam International, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Saferworld. The report is the first to show, on a large scale, the effect of conflict on Africa's gross domestic product (GDP).

The report, entitled "Africa's Missing Billions: International Arms Flows and the Cost of Conflict", compares the economies of countries at war with those of countries experiencing peace. According to the report, an average "war, civil war, or insurgency shrinks an African economy by 15 percent," and the continent loses about 18 billion U.S. dollars a year to conflict."

This is yet another example of why it is so important that people have access to employment and capital to create productive and thriving businesses rather than having to turn to war and arms dealing as a livelihood. Fair Trade businesses, though often small in scale, give rural and often uneducated people access to the income needed to both educate their children and participate in a growing economy, thereby letting medium and large sized businesses grow and prosper.

Live from the Green Festival in DC

I am standing here in our booth at the Green Festival in Washington DC where hundreds of vendors like ourselves are selling everything from fair trade coffee to semi-powered bicycles. We've got a full display of fair trade baskets, jewelry, home goods and fun gifts and are located next to one of the stages where speakers such as Ralph Nadar and will be speaking. It's a pretty cool event and also occurs in Chicago and San Francisco so maybe some of you readers will get to a Green Festival someday. Well, someone wants to make a purchase so I better get back to work.

PS. For those who think global warning is a crackpot idea...all I can say is that it's October 7th and it's going to be nearly 90 degrees here today?!

It's all GOOD

Saturday night I, along with a couple thousand other people, attended the GOOD Magazine NYC Anniversary Party. For those of you who have not yet flipped through an issue of GOOD, they describe the philosophy of the magazine as follows: We see a growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest. This revolves around a passion for potential mixed with fierce pragmatism and creative engagement. We sum all this up as the sensibility of giving a damn. But to shorten it, let's call it GOOD. We're here to push this movement and cover its realization.

Playing on the theme of "giving a damn" they had plenty of sponsors at the event promoting everything from t-shirts made from bamboo that encouraged people to invest to end poverty and hunger, to instant messaging for a cause, not to mention Izze soda and Abosolut vodka which made everyone feel better. I took advantage of the opportunity to make a short video (about a minute) about what I give a damn about, namely fair trade. Who knows, maybe they'll post it on the GOOD Magazine blog in the coming weeks?!