Geovana Pagel*
São Paulo – Embroidery is one of the main activities of the women in the Seridó region, a semiarid region that covers part of the northeastern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. The products made by the artisans from the Association of Embroiderers from Seridó, based in the city of Caicó, which is 256 kilometres away from state capital Natal, will be shipped to Paris in the coming days.
On Friday (25), the association made its first export through the Bank of Brazil Foreign Trade Counter. The sale was to airline TAM Europa, which purchased 300 items to give customers at the end of the year.
“The art of embroidery was brought by the wives of Portuguese colonizers,” explained Arlete Silva de Andrade, 54 years of age, who has been an embroiderer since age 19. According to Arlete, the association was established in 1973 and currently includes 150 artisans in the art of hand and machine embroidery. “But in the whole region there are over 5,000 embroiderers,” explained Arlete.
According to her, the organization and qualification of the embroiderers began in early 2004, with the support of the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) and of the Bank of Brazil, through the Sustainable Regional Development Program (DRF). “After that we organized ourselves and started producing with greater quality,” she explained.
The bank financed the purchase of special thread, the Sebrae supplied the design of products to the liking of the Europeans. Sales grew and the income of the embroiderers rose from around US$ 135 to US$ 230.
At the beginning of 2005, explained Arlete, the organization promoted the exhibition of 24 products on the web page of the Bank of Brazil International Trade Bureau, which advertises products abroad, shows pictures and ships samples, offers logistics services through connected companies and organizes foreign exchange operations on the Internet, which simplifies the process, reduces bureaucracy and operation costs for sales up to US$ 20,000.
The parts produced in Caicó are embroidered with flowers, in the form of matrices or colours, in styles that are characteristic of the traditional embroidery of Seridó.
Sustainable regional development
The success of the embroiderers from Seridó was mentioned by the vice president of Foreign Business and Retail at the Bank of Brazil, José Maria Rabelo, during the National Foreign Trade Meeting (Enaex), which took place between November 23 and 25, at Glória Hotel, in the southeastern Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro.
Rabelo also recalled that the Bank of Brazil recently began work for market incorporation of a large number of small artisans and rural producers. For this reason, the organization created the program called Sustainable Regional Development (DRF), whose objective is to loan over US$ 450 million to new clients up to the end of 2006.
According to him, the Bank of Brazil sponsored the training of 55,000 artisans and farmers and also offered business plans to various local productive arrangements and has already begun the liberation of the first US$ 60 million in credit.
According to Rabelo, the Bank strategy consists of showing that it is present from point to point of the Brazilian economic process: that it makes possible from great international operations to the financing of small exporters.
*Translated by Mark Ament
