MANY women artisans across Fiji are being forced to sell their handmade products at half price simply to survive.
This was revealed by Minister for Women and Social Protection Sashi Kiran during a product development training session.
Ms Kiran said many women struggled to find reliable markets for their crafts, leaving them with few options when sales were slow.
“Sometimes you take your products to the Flea market and sell them at half price because you urgently need money,” she said.
“Sometimes the products do not sell at all and you end up giving them to relatives just to recover some cash.”
She said many were not receiving the true value of their work, even though the quality of their crafts was often very high.
“Some of your products are very good quality, your baskets and other handicrafts are really good.”
However, she said, Fiji had not developed strong markets for these products.
She said many traditional crafts were created with culture and tradition in mind, while existing commercial markets tend to focus on tourism and duty-free shopping.
