THE Tourism Product Development Company’s (TPDCo)’s Violet Crutchley says a number of craft producers are disillusioned with the trade because they are unaware of the economic value to be achieved if done the right way.

“… Persons do not recognise the viability of it and so they don’t want to enter into that kind of venture because looking on the outside and seeing all of this it is not encouraging, so you have to be naturally artistic and wanting to do that to make money,” she said. “We do have Jamaican artisans who are exporting and making good money,” said Crutchley, a craft development specialist at the TPDCo.

Crutchley was among a team that highlighted the benefits of some of the Organisation of American States (OAS)-funded programmes in Jamaica at the weekly Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange of reporters and editors at the newspaper’s head offices in Kingston.

The reluctance of persons to enter the trade is one of the reasons for the TPDCo’s coordination of a number of craft workshops, under the OAS development project, in several parishes across the island.

Noting that the OAS intervention has been well- received and appreciated, Crutchley said 37 individuals, mainly young people, have since been trained.

The selection of places for the training, she explained, was done based on availability of raw materials in that area, as the aim is to have sustainability at the end of the training.

Among the materials used are bamboo, fibre or straws, textiles, and recycled material.

“… So far it is going very well. We are bringing out new designs and persons are being asked to create something very unusual and they have come up with some very interesting things,” she said.

A major advantage of the programme, she said, is the marketing component.

“What is impressive is that after all this training you don’t just sit there and make products but there is a marketing element to it on the web. Therefore, when you are finished with the training you are able to be marketed as a producer,” she explained.

According to Crutchley, a number of people have also become disillusioned in the craft for a number of reasons. Among them, she said, is the fact that the trade has not attracted many young people, while a number of the older folks have migrated.

Another challenge, she said, is that a lot of the craft traders are not themselves producers of the items.

“The producers sell to the traders and sometimes the producers will say that finding the raw material is not so easy any more because of urbanisation,” she said.

Crutchley explained that sourcing material has also become gender specific as it needs male help to reach where it can be found.

“Some of these materials have gone so far inland and so it is no longer near to the home environment and most of it [is] in challenging areas like woodland and swampy areas,” she said.

Added to those challenges is the fact that artisans have not been going for variety in the items they produce. “Persons have always been saying there is a lack of variety and poor quality of craft in the whole sector and without doubt it is true,” Crutchley said.