The Association of Craft Producers (ACP) on Sunday organised a day-long ‘Dhukuti Open House for New Collection 2018’ at Kupondole, Lalitpur to showcase trendy new handicraft collections.

Wide range of handicraft items like curtains, bed sheets and copper-made products themed in marigold were specially designed to attract customers. “We launch new handicraft products every year to satisfy our customer. This year, we themed the showcase as marigold,” said Meera Bhattarai, executive director at ACP. This kind of event helps in building confidence among handicraft producers and reaches many customers, she added. The ACP is a

local, not for profit, fair trade organisation providing design, marketing, management, and technical services to low-income Nepali craft producers.

ACP has been organising the event since 2003. Different handicraft products, decorating items, utensils, wellness products such as massage oil, beauty products, organic tea and coffee, ceramics products, bags, and Nepali paper products were showcased during the exhibition.

ACP is exporting its products to 80 dealers in 20 countries such as US, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium and among others. Bhattarai informed that net wear products are high in demand at foreign countries and has large number of customers in the US. The demand for ceramics and textiles is very high as well. ACP has an annual turnover of Rs100 million.

Sales of handicrafts usually surge by up to 45 percent during festivals where the majority of customers are domestic.

Raw materials for handicrafts especially wool are imported from New Zealand and Australia while threads are imported from India. This results in high production costs of local handicraft.

Dhukuti has its presence in 15 districts with over 1,000 women working under its umbrella. Women prepare raw materials and apply the finishing touch to products, while design and development training are provided to women.

ACP is also providing designing, marketing and managerial skills to strengthen the economic activities of women.

Bhattarai said that support from the government to handicraft industry is lacking. “The government needs to support production of raw materials such as cotton farming and animal rearing.” Although the government provides rebate for handicraft export, exporters have to jump through unnecessary hurdles to claim them.