São Paulo – A group of artisans from the city of Fortaleza, in Ceará, exports around 30,000 bottles decorated with coloured sand to Jordan each year. According to Maria Maviniê Mota, the coordinator of association Grão de Cor, which brings together the artisans and promotes sales, from Jordan the products are shipped to several parts of the world, like other Arab countries and China. Exports have been taking place for 10 years and the buyer is a businessman from Aqaba, who distributes the articles and also does handicraft locally.
The bottles that go to Jordan are sold as souvenirs of the beaches of the northeast of Brazil. They include sands of different colours, with different drawings. Those exported to the Arab country, explained Maviniê, are the traditional ones, with landscapes including elements like houses, boats, sea and sky. The group, however, also produces other items of handicraft and decoration, like tables, floor tiles, pictures, vases, refrigerator magnets and key chains. They all have coloured sand inside.
The artisans have been working in a group since 1990, but the association was only made official around four years ago. Exports began in the early stages of activities, to England. Today, the great buyers, abroad, are in European countries, like Italy, England, Germany, Portugal and Spain. Exports answer to 20% to 30% of all Grão de Cor produces. Production of large objects is sporadic, according to the coordinator, but among the small products, they produce, together, 700 units a day.
According to Maviniê, a total of 43 artisans supply the products for Grão de Cor exports. The association includes the Ceará State Handicraft Institute (ICA), which has an export program in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil). The program includes over 1,000 artisans from nine Brazilian states. This year, exports generated revenues of around US$ 500,000. The target for next year, according to the ICA president, Benedito Monteiro (Sumé), is US$ 1 million.
The partnership began in 2007, with the Ceará State Union of Autonomous Artisans (Siara). This year, it was renewed, this time with the ICA, and also started covering artisans from other states. The institute had already been seeking market abroad for the artisans from Ceará since 2003, but after the agreement with the Apex, the group started participating in eight fairs abroad each year, mainly in Europe. Exports, according to Monteiro, have grown fourfold since then.
The states included in the handicraft export program are the states of Ceará, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Bahia and Espírito Santo, as well as the Federal District, where the country capital is located. The handicraft made ranges from hammocks, furniture made out of natural threads, ceramics, bottles of coloured sand and leather sandals to embroidered products. Sales go to over ten countries, among them Arab nations.
Contact
Grão de Cor
Telephone: (+55 85) 3294-1617
Email: areiacolorida@hotmail.com
*Translated by Mark Ament
