From March 9th to 11th ICCIC supported a workshop for women’s handicraft cooperatives in Baoji city of Shaanxi province.20 people representing 15 cooperatives from the western provinces ofShaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai participated in the workshop. Their cooperatives make and sell products such as embroidery, knitted products, cloth products, wall hangings, masks etc. In addition to giving participants and opportunity to share their experience with production and business the workshop also introduced participants to tools such as SWOT analysis, market segmentation and competition analysis. They also discussed marketing strategies and issues related to product development. Based on their analysis the participants also discussed opportunities and possibilities for initiating cooperation between cooperatives in the future to overcome some of the challenges and difficulties they face.

Financial support for the workshop was provided by Mr. He Wanying of the the Binxian County Coal Company. Tim Zachernuk and ICCIC Deputy Secretary General Liu Guozhong acted as facilitators for the workshop and ICCIC Deputy Chairperson Mr. David Bromwich attended the workshop and participated in workshop activities. Mr. Zhang Xufeng of the Agriculture Economic Management Section of the Shaanxi Province Dept. of Agriculture also joined the workshop and described the experiences of other handicraft cooperatives in the province.

Captions for pictures:

1: Mdm. Han Xueqin of the Feitian Handicrafts Cooperative in Sunan County, Gansu province shows some of their products with the distinctive designs of the Yugu minority group.

2: Mr. Liu Guozhong of ICCIC leads the participants in a SWOT analysis of the handicraft sector.

3: Mdm. Zhu of the Minhe Women’s Handicraft Association wearing typical costume of Tu national minority.

4: Mr. Dave Bromwich of ICCIC takes part in a role play game giving participants practice selling their wares to foreign tourists.

5: Group photo of workshop participants.