Artisans urged to mould online market
Published:Friday | December 18, 2020 | 12:06 AMJonielle Daley/Staff Reporter
President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), Richard Pandohie, is urging local artisans to develop a strong online presence to tap into inland and cross-border revenue streams.
Pandohie bemoans that Jamaican artists have been disappointingly slow in capitalising on virtual reach because they do not fully understand the potential of e-commerce.
“Getting good, high-quality social media presence is a must-do and the reality is that you are likely to reach a far higher number of potential clients,” he said.
The JMEA continues to lobby for the customs administrative fee to be removed from products sold online.
“This is a new space for many artisans and the elimination of this fee is just a rounding error for the Ministry of Finance,” he told The Gleaner.
There is currently a minimum fee of $3,000 regardless of the value of the product being shipped.
The JMEA president is pleading with artisans venturing into e-commerce to register their business to avoid exploitation as many other countries continue to earn from Brand Jamaica at our own expense.
Pandohie’s warning to artisans is apt and timely in the wake of the cancellation of the annual Potters’ Fair in Jamaica. The fair has gone the way of many events in Jamaica – a victim of coronavirus containment restrictions that have outlawed gatherings of more than 15 and imposed night-time curfews.
The Christmas arts and crafts fair, staged by the Association of Jamaican Potters (AJP), has brought local artists with leathercraft, sculptures, textiles, jewellery, ceramics, carvings, paintings, aromatherapy, handmade soaps and photography in one space for more than 25 years.
The two-day event, usually held on the second weekend in December, facilitated just over 100 artists at last year’s staging, bringing them into a space to meet and inspire each other while making financially rewarding connections with patrons.
“We definitely feel the loss of not having this show this year so we’re working on something for early next year for our artists,” said Allison Sinclair, president of the Association of Jamaican Potters.
Many make 60 to 70 per cent of their annual sales at the fair. Sinclair explained that many have also gained retainer clients, such as craft or gift shops, hotels, and even collectors from the event as people have got used to the Potters’ Fair being a reliable supplier of quality products and authentic Christmas gifts.
While the association prides itself on having the longest-running art and crafts fair in the English-speaking Caribbean, they have also enforced only 100 per cent locally made products in the fair.
“We fine-tuned a contract maybe about five to six years into the show to say it has to be 100 per cent made in Jamaica, or 80 per cent value-added, because people would buy inputs and then finish off the things,” the association head said.
Sinclair said that though the artists produce top-tier work lauded by JAMPRO, the trade and investment lobby, at the 30th-anniversary celebration of the AJP last year, she does not foresee them collectively stepping outside of their niche because they are unable to “compete on the level of mass production like China, Mexico or the Dominican Republic”.
Despite Sinclair’s grim outlook, there is an international market for niche products and artisans are being encouraged to take advantage of the opportunity.
In former years, most items would be sold at the Potters’ Fair within the first hour of the gates being opened. Some arts stakeholders believe, however, that in recent years, the reverence for Brand Jamaica has dwindled and the importance to shop local has been overlooked.
Tricia Evelyn, an artist for more than 30 years, bemoaned the decrease in interest and the lack of respect and education of the younger generations.
She had started preparing her textile for the fair from August. With the cancellation of the fair and operations being suspended at the Edna Manley Gift Shop, which she was managing, Evelyn is pleading with the public to “seek out local craftspeople this Christmas, for now, more than ever, they need the support”.
Evelyn remembers yesteryear when various entities such as Xaymaca Craft assisted craftspeople with the sale of art.
“Now we have to be scrambling to present our work in a format we have never had to use before,” Evelyn said.