West Java handicraft makers unite for fair price

West Java handicraft makers unite for fair price

By Des Price

JAKARTA (JP): In West Java, as well as in more remote parts of
Indonesia, small handicrafts associations make mostly traditional
items for international markets. Fair trade organizations around
the world buy from developing countries where the producers get a
fair return for their labor.

Fair trade organizations usually sell the products at their
own retail outlets, which may be just backstreet lock-ups in grim
neighborhoods, while other organizations like Trade Aid in New
Zealand have chainstore boutiques all over the country.

The producer groups in West Java mainly use locally grown raw
materials which are then turned into a wide range of household
products and ornaments that will eventually adorn homes in
Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.

Working in associations allows small family businesses to
flourish, operating in an environment of guidance and cooperation
and economic viability. The associations in turn supply a Jakarta
based company, Pekerti Nusantara, that doubles as an export
company and development foundation.

In the small village of Cibatu, near Sukabumi, Daddan
Komaruddin is the coordinator of 10 workers' cooperatives
comprised of between three and 10 people in each group. Daddan
has built up the business by allowing full participation of the
members in planning and decision-making: members of the
cooperatives attend regular meetings with the other producer
groups and Daddan. Important issues like pricing, savings and
loans and other managerial concerns pertaining to the business
are discussed.

Daddan has developed and diversified the business since he
inherited the workshops from his father some 10 years ago.
Originally, they produced wooden kitchen utensils that were sold
locally. Now they produce a wide range of items from ornately
decorated walking sticks to picture frames, incense stands,
cupstands, magic cards and the traditional Javanese game called
congklak. The items are finished and quality control-inspected in
Daddan's workshop before being shipped to Jakarta.

Mutual benefit

Daddan has been successful in using his influence at a local
level to establish this network of producers, to the mutual
benefit of many families who would otherwise struggle to make a
living.

Eti, a 35-year-old woman, lost her husband a year ago while
the family was living in Batang, Central Java. With the loss of
the family's breadwinner, she made the decision to return to the
city with her 14-year-old daughter and father. She found part-
time work as a maid but the income from her job was not enough to
make ends meet. When told about the association, she quickly
joined and started making magic cards: a brainteaser game made of
small wooden pieces linked together with ribbon.

Eti continues to work as a maid, but also works at home for a
few hours each day, along with her father and daughter. Together
they earn more than enough to pay for their necessities and are,
because of this, able to save money, too.

Eti has plans for the money that she is saving: "My dream is
to buy a little house for us to live in. We rent this place at
the moment, but even so, I can save money and hope that it won't
be long until we buy a place. My father is 72 and he enjoys the
work; it's light work, so it's not a strain on him."

The magic cards will be exported to a fair trade organization
in the Netherlands.

Charitable acts and neighborly deeds are common with members
of the association. They have recently built a house for a family
that was previously homeless and whose youngest child suffered
from malnutrition.

Domestic market

In the town of Sumedang, Enjang Sudrajad has opened two
workshops and employs 16 men. The export products include
didgeridoos and drums. Enjang has also developed a domestic
market and makes fancy wooden pens that are sold in Bali, and
furniture which he sells in Bandung and Jakarta.

His business has not always been successful: Enjang tells
about his early experiences in the trade when he sold goods
produced by other craftsmen: "In the 1970s I sold to foreigners
at Tanjung Priok Port, but the police wouldn't allow me to sell
there and officials always demanded money from me.

"I spent my time running away from the police and paying off
officials. It wasn't very profitable. I then started selling
door-to-door in Jakarta. Later, I sold furniture in Bandung,
Solo, Jakarta and Bali.

"Then, I decided that it would be better and more lucrative to
start a workshop and make the items myself. We developed a
domestic market and then moved on to exports through Pekerti in
Jakarta. We had to improve the quality of our products for the
export market."

Enjang is able to pay his employees more than local factories
but admits that he does this to keep them. He also offers small
extras such as meals, and a holiday allowance following Ramadan.

Street beggars

On the streets of Indonesia's cities and towns, disabled
people can be seen begging for small change from motorists and
passersby. Often these people have no family support networks and
are unable to find employment.

Yamin, from Tasikmalaya, West Java, lost his sight when he was
three years old. He is thankful that he has been spared the
degradation of begging. His love of music -- coupled with his ear
for tuning instruments -- landed him a job tuning angklung for
Papertas, a local handicrafts association with members producing
a large range of products for domestic and export markets.

Yamin says that his job provides him with a reasonable living
for himself, his wife and two young daughters. Although not
entirely content with his daily tasks, Yamin feels fortunate that
he has employment:

"This job is a bit like a hobby; at school I got interested in
music and learned to play the guitar and drums. I've been tuning
angklung for 11 years and, well, to be honest I get a bit bored
with it at times, but I have no real chance of finding another
job.

"I'm a trained teacher but couldn't get a job at the school
for the disabled, so I started music groups that performed at
parties and other festivities. Now I've got this job and we live
reasonably well on my pay which is Rp 15,000 per day."

Bonus

Working in the same association, Ibu Ocoy now aged 66, has
made mats since she was 10 years old. She remembers having a
brief respite during the Japanese occupation when they, the
Japanese, commandeered the mendong -- the raw material used by
the producers to make the mats.

Ibu Ocoy joined a Papertas subgroup just one year ago and as a
bonus of being part of the group she shares in the distribution
of free rice to participating families, receiving a quota of 200
kilos every three months.

Now that she is working on mats for export, the quality of the
mats has risen: There are two kinds of mats," she explains,
"those for export and those for domestic sales. Mats made for
export must be of a very high standard, while we pay less
attention to detail and quality for mats sold in Indonesia. There
are three harvests of mendong per year. The mendong for export
mats must be cut in the dry season and stored in dry conditions
and kept free from moisture. These mats when woven get extra
stitching, to ensure their ruggedness."

Venturing out of the center of Tasikmalaya to the outskirts of
town in the association leader's vintage boneshaker minibus,
mendong can be seen growing in the fields on both sides of the
road. Dudung Suparli is upbeat about the association: "After 15
years I see the results of my work. I feel happy working with the
community and increasing people's knowledge and skills."

Pekerti Nusantara in Jakarta uncompromisingly invests in
development work, assisting in the formation of new producer
groups. Some years ago they sent a field worker to Tasikmalaya.
He has subsequently stayed on for nine years and successfully
built up the Papertas association as well as other initiatives in
the area. With the help that the locals got in the formative
years, they now have a strong footing in the domestic/export
marketplace.

While Indonesian handicrafts makers busy themselves turning
locally grown raw materials into fancy items, retail outlets such
as Trade Aid in New Zealand gladly sell the exotic goods to
curious customers. In one of Trade Aid's street shops, Maria, a
25-year-old visitor to Auckland, admires an angklung. Asked why
she shops at Trade Aid outlets she replied enthusiastically that
they had a wide variety of interesting goods and that she was
also greatly impressed by the concept behind the industry: "There
is so much talk about acting locally and thinking globally, but
the people making these things, and Trade Aid, are really doing
it."