256 Palm utilisation for basketry in Xini Ward, Sengwe communal areas, ZimbabweThe characteristics of trade and marketing systems
A large number of households with one or two producer members are engaged
in palm harvesting and processing. Of the 93% of households that produced
crafts, 76.6% produced baskets on a commercial basis while the rest produced
for own use and gifts. Also, 57.5% of the commercial producers work in groups,
namely the Sengwe Vanani Craft Association (SEVACA). Little technology is
used in the production, nothing more than a knife for leaf harvesting and a
needle for stranding and weaving. Each individual produces more than one
type of artefact (Table 3), perhaps in response to orders from SEVACA.The Sengwe Vanani Craft Association
SEVACA, a craft-trading organisation based in the Sengwe Communal Areas,
was formed in 1997 with financial assistance from the German nongovernmental
organisation Terre des Hommes. SEVACA secured support from another two
nongovernmental organisations, Environmental Development Activities-
Zimbabwe (ENDA-Zimbabwe) and Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources
(SAFIRE), with regards to capacity building and marketing. Like all the other
wards in Sengwe communal lands, Xini ward has three producer groups affiliated
with SEVACA and a craft shop manned by a sales person. The shop was
established mainly for storage and limited local sales. The main activity
members were engaged in at group level was training in production for orders.
Between 2000 and 2001 SEVACA was receiving orders of up to 6,000 items for
four different products.Trading of palm baskets
About 63% of the produced items are traded for cash. Individuals produced
baskets, which are traded locally or are collected by producer groups, graded
and sold to the SEVACA association. SEVACA bought the items for US$0.7 to
US$1.33, which gave each craft producer a minimum of US$13.09 per annum.
The main buyers for SEVACA were the National Handcraft Centre, National Art
Gallery, and some foreign buyers in Mexico and Europe. The items were sold
with a 20% to 30 % mark-up, giving selling prices of US$1.67 to US$2.0. Between
1999 and 2000 SEVACA made a turnover of about US$500 annually.
Besides the mentioned markets, SEVACA sold some of its items at the
Zimbabwe International Trade Fair as well as at Zimbabwe national and
provincial agricultural shows. By participating in these events SEVACA managed
to secure orders from foreign markets but strong external trade links have not
yet formed. The trade in crafts from Xini is summarized in Figure 4.
Most of the grading is undertaken at the association level, where baskets
are classified according to set and agreed standards by peer groups. There are
many players involved in determining the sales prices, including product
owners, buyers and projects officers supporting and employed by SEVACA.
Main determinants of the final sales price are size, time it took to produce an
item, complexity of shape and patterns used.14PALM.P65 256 22/12/2004, 11:05